


Moving Target

by Karuke



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Clubbing, Drunken bad decisions, I added it because it's ridiculous, I can't believe that's a suggested tag, Rekindled Relationships, You Should Have Come to Shiratorizawa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2018-10-31 04:06:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10891353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karuke/pseuds/Karuke
Summary: Life can be really hard when you're balancing a full college career with business ownership. School all day and running a club most nights puts a hell of a drain on a person. And that is just the start of Kuroo Tetsurou's problems.ORThe post-canon night club/college AU that absolutely no one has ever asked for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Welcome to the crazy imaginings of my personal headcanon. A few things to note:  
> -I'm still kinda new to posting on AO3, so please bear with me as I get used to tags and formats. I'm from the old school. Back in my day--!  
> -I am rating this mature for things to come, so please be patient  
> -My tagging game will improve, I promise.  
> -I have a history of updating chaptered works rather slowly.

Kuroo jogged the five blocks from the bus stop, his messenger bag swinging and banging into his back as he dodged other pedestrians. He was running late. Class had run overlong, and he'd missed his usual bus and had to take the one that came fifteen minutes later. When he finally arrived, the rest of his evening shifters were waiting around the front door, chatting amiably.

“Kuroo-san,” the bartender whined, stubbing out her cigarette, “that's the second time this week you were late.”

Fumbling the keys out of his pocket, Kuroo unlocked the door to the club and watched the other three head in. “Sorry, Ume-chan. What can I say? My biology professor really likes the sound of his own voice.” It was true. His teacher was notorious throughout the school for not paying any heed to the class bells.

“Relax, Ume,” the waiter laughed as they all headed to the back room to drop off their stuff. “Kuroo-san is studying very hard! And he never penalizes us for the time when he's late.”

Ume huffed, slipping her purse into her locker and pulling out a cleanly pressed white dress shirt. “He owns a business, I don't understand why he's doing this AND still attending college.”

“Everyone has dreams, Ume,” the other young woman laughed, already taking off her hoodie and slipping her own white shirt over a hot pink tanktop. Strictly speaking, that wasn't allowed in the dress code, but Kuroo didn't mind. The pink showed through, but as Kaoru had pointed out, it made their male customers look and people who looked were people who ordered drinks.

Kuroo, without a trace of embarrassment, slipped his sweatpants off and traded them for black slacks. He'd become a master at changing while other people were in the room, and if volleyball locker rooms hadn't gotten him accustomed to people seeing his boxers, nothing in the world would. He was rolling up the cuffs of his own red dress shirt when his cell phone started ringing. He answered it as Kaoru and Ume left to go get the bar and tables ready. The waiter Makoto, paused at the door and winced as Kuroo's cheerful greeting turned sour very rapidly.

“Hey, Gin! What's up?” Pause. “What?” A slightly longer pause, and Kuroo's face was beginning to turn into a frown. “Come on man, you did this to us last week and we barely got you covered in time.” Now the frown was turning into a scowl. “I don't give a damn about what your parents are saying. You took the job here _knowing_ it was gonna be late nights!”

Makoto watched Kuroo's arm muscles tense as he clenched his free hand into a fist. Beating a hasty retreat out onto the floor, he let the door swing shut just as Kuroo began yelling.

Kaoru hurried over, tucking a pen into her curly ponytail. “What's up with Boss?”

Makoto winced as they heard their boss's raised voice, even through the heavy door. “Sounds like Gin's having problems with his parents again. I think he's trying to call out tonight.”

Ume sniffed, not looking up from where she was wiping down bottles of alcohol and stocking them on the shelves behind the bar. “Serves him right for still living at home at his age. If he'd just dump that gold-digging girlfriend of his, Gin could afford to live by himself pretty comfortably.”

“Ume-san!” Kaoru chided. “You don't know what's going on, don't be so judgemental.”

Makoto's own comment on the situation was cut off as the swinging door to the back of house shot open with a bang.

“Who has a friend who can operate a sound system?!” Kuroo demanded, stomping up to the trio in high bad humor. They all looked around at each other in surprise. “Um,” Makoto hesitated, “Um, is Gin not...?”

Kuroo snorted. “Oh don't act like you didn't hear me yelling and weren't talking about what was going on. I fired him. But now I need a DJ. Who knows someone that can run the system here?”

His response was a resounding no one. With a sigh that bordered on a feral growl, Kuroo stomped off to the office to try and figure something out. His first recourse was to text Kenma. The kid was going to school for game development, right? He probably knew a nerd who could play music for a couple of hours and needed a quick paycheck.

_Oi, Kenma. I need a favor._

_I'm about to go to class, Kuroo._

_Yeah, well, I need a DJ. Can one of your gamer friends do it?_

_Probably not._

_Damn! Look, do you have any ideas? We open in two hours and I need someone who can stand up at the table and play music._

_Hmmm..._

_What does that mean?_

_Kenma?_

_Oi!_

_I might have someone. I'll let you know._

_Seriously? I knew I loved you for a reason!_

_You always say embarrassing things. I have class now. I'll message you later._

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the miracle fix he'd been hoping for, but Kuroo smiled. He sent a string of kissy-face emoji and sparkling hearts, knowing it would annoy his younger friend. Just in case, though, he turned to his work computer and started searching the internet. If Kenma's person fell through, maybe he could find some other desperate college student. If not, he'd just have to get up there and do it himself. If he called and begged, really _pleaded_ and managed to shed a fake tear, Bokuto would give him a hand with the door.  
But that... was a last resort. 

An hour and a half later, and Kuroo was about ready to slam his head against the wall. He'd given up on the internet search and was trying to get some of the paperwork done when Kaoru knocked gently on the open office door. “Excuse me, Boss?”  
“Eh? Oh, Kaoru. What?”  
“There's a guy out front who said that Kenma-kun sent him?”  
Kuroo shot up out of his chair. “Ohhh! Kenma, you're amazing! Did you guys let him in?”  
“Yeah. He's up front with Ume-san. And, um, Boss, he's um...” Kaoru blushed furiously and stuffed her hands into her apron pockets. “He's really, _really_ hot.”  
“Oho? Good, attractive workers pull in more people. That's why I hired you, after all.” Kuroo slipped around Kaoru as the girl blushed even darker and made his way up the hall to the club's front. He pushed through the door and headed for the bar where he could see Ume carefully polishing the bartop. “Hey, new guy, you're a life-sav-” He stopped dead ten feet away, one leg actually hanging in the air in an incomplete step. “Eh?”  
The blonde young man sitting at the bar turned around and stood, pushing his dark, square glasses frames up his face.  
“Ehh?”  
Like a vision from his not-so-distant past, Tsukishima stood before Kuroo, bowing ever so slightly.  
“EHHHHHHHH?!”  
Tsukishima straightened and blinked. It seemed to take a second, but finally his face cracked in surprised disbelief. “Huh? Kuroo-san? What are you doing here?”  
“This is my club! I'm the one who gets to ask questions! Four-eyes! What are you doing here?”  
“It's Tsukishima. And Kenma-kun told me that the club here needed a DJ on short notice for tonight.”  
“Yeah, we do! You know Kenma?”  
Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. “Not especially. But he messaged Hinata and Hinata harrassed me until I said I'd do it.”  
“W-well,” Kuroo suddenly felt somewhat self-conscious. He hadn't seen Tsukishima in nearly five years, not since he'd graduated high school. They'd had somewhat of an antagonistic relationship back then, and being from rival schools had certainly not helped them grow especially close. “However it happened, you've really pulled my ass out of it. Look, I'll pay you well, but we open in, ah,” - a quick glance at the watch on his wrist and good grief it was almost six- “just about twenty minutes. Lights go down at 8, and come back up at 2. We close at 3. Can you be here until then?”  
“That's fine. Rules?”  
“Keep the music going and don't chase out customers, that's about it. Here, let me show you the music system.”

Tsukishima's face was a calm mask as Kuroo walked him through everything and introduced the staff. His other bartender had arrived, and Kaoru was giggling in a corner with the other two female waitresses when he jogged into the back room, leaving Tsukishima at the slightly raised platform against one wall that held all of the DJ's equipment.  
“Kuroo-san,” Ume stuck her head into the doorway of his office. “Bokuto-san is here. He said you called begging for help?”  
“Ah, uh, yeah.” Kuroo was trying to organize all the papers on his desk. “We might be a few minutes late opening, especially if he sees Tsukishima.”  
“Do you know that guy?” Ume leaned against the door frame, her hands crossed over her ample breasts. “You seemed chummy.”  
“We went to rival schools back in high school,” Kuroo answered absently, trying to find the electrical bill he had just set aside somewhere. “We played volleyball against each other.”  
Kuroo could hear the smirk in the voice that his memory told him was familiar, but too deep to be right. “Is that all it was to you, Kuroo-san? Playing volleyball? You and Bokuto-san basically held me hostage and forced me to practice with you.”  
Ume's face went a little pink as Tsukishima leaned into the doorway next to her. He had actually managed to grow _more_ , that asshole, and he stood head and shoulders above the bartender. Kuroo struggled not to click his tongue in annoyance. “Still upset that we cared for our kohai so much we made you stronger? Bokuto is here, by the way, you might want to avoid him until I've got him on door, or else he'll corner you and never let you get away.”  
Tsukishima merely shrugged. “I'll go get myself ready, then. I've got the lights and speakers figured out now. Mind if I keep a drink up there with me?”  
“As long as it's got a top, no accidental spills. That stuff is expensive to replace. Oi, did you drive here?” Kuroo found the paper he was looking for and filed it away carefully.  
“No, I took the train. Why?”  
“Ume-chan, he's legal. If he wants a drink, they're on the house.”  
Ume turned to eye the retreating Tsukishima hungrily. “Oh, he's drinking age?”  
“Good luck with that,” Kuroo laughed, putting the last of his papers away and following Ume out into the hallway. “That guy is an iceberg.”

To his annoyance, Kuroo actually noticed an uptick in the crowd tonight. There was more than usual for a Friday night, and it wasn't until he ran inside for a drink that he saw why. The dance floor was packed. Tsukishima, with his t-shirt sleeves rolled up to his shoulders and headphones halfway on, was bouncing ever-so-slightly to the pounding beat of the music as he eyed the crowd. It was impressive. Kuroo had had three djs pass through his club since he'd taken over, and none of them had managed to get this many people dancing at once.  
Outside once again, he tossed a bottle of water to Bokuto, who grinned. “The new guy is really pulling people in! He might save you yet.”  
Kuroo smirked. “Have you actually seen him?”  
“Who, the dj? No. Why?” He waved through the pair of young women who were giggling outrageously as they passed.  
“I think you'll be surprised.”  
Bokuto raised his eyebrows and leaned backwards through the front doors, craning his neck to see through the flickering lights of the club. “Oho?”  
“Oho indeed.”  
Righting himself again, Bokuto blinked. “Four-eyes, really? Hey, hey, Kuroo, I'm surprised at you! How'd you get the kid out here?”  
“Dunno, I asked Kenma for a body and that's what showed up. I was in a bit of a rush so I didn't get a chance to sit and chat.”  
“Bring him back tomorrow!” Bokuto laughed raucously, holding out his hand for the IDs of the couple at the front of the line. “You need the business!”  
“Tch, rude!”

But as Kuroo glanced inside at the waving, jumping, gyrating crowd on the dance floor, he shrugged. If he could get Tsukishima back again, he'd damn well do it.


	2. Chapter 2

Lights went up as planned at 2 A.M., and by that point Tsukishima had already started winding the music down. The crowd of patrons had thinned considerably, though Kuroo and Bokuto still had to remind a few die-hard groups that they needed to vacate the booths surrounding the dance floor. Kuroo turned the lock on the front doors and flipped off the lighted sign out front just after 3. He yawned outrageously, feeling his jaw pop. He was about to turn and thank everyone for their hard work, when he heard Bokuto's loud voice, “Four-Eyes! Hey, hey, hey, long time no see!”  
“Oh, Bokuto-san. I see you don't remember my name.” Tsukishima was carefully turning everything off, a process that required the manipulation of so many switches and dials that Kuroo felt like it was something out of a sci-fi movie.  
“I remember you, Tsukishima!”  
“Well color me surprised.”  
Kaoru and Miko were already going around, collecting glasses from tables and odd corners as Makoto began the process of sweeping the floors. Kuroo nodded at them, flashing a grin and a thumbs up, before heading over to the bar. Ume and her partner Ichirou were washing glasses methodically as the waitresses brought them over, drying and hanging them in the racks under the bar with exacting efficiency. He sat on a stool at the bar and turned to look around. “Busy night, huh?”  
“Busiest it's been in a while, Boss,” Ichirou replied, handing a soapy glass to Ume. “Everyone was messaging their friends about Tsukishima-san. They really liked his style.”  
“More than one girl really liked his _face_ ,” Ume smirked. “I saw two different women try to talk to him, and from what I saw, he shut them down pretty fast.”  
Kuroo chuckled, enjoying being off his feet. “That sounds right. Tsukishima has always been a hard sell. It's a stubborn woman that will get to him.” He caught the gleam in Ume's eye. “He's too young for you, Ume-chan. Besides, you don't need that much salt in your life. You've got enough of it already.”  
“I look older than I am, Kuroo-san. Probably because my young, impertinent boss works me so hard.”  
“Yes, but he also _pays_ really well. Isn't that why you stay, hmm?” Kuro tilted his head backwards until he was staring at Ume upside-down. “I notice you don't complain when payday comes around.”  
“Only a fool complains with money in hand,” Ume scoffed.  
“Hey, uh, Boss?”  
Kuroo sat back up, rubbing a crick in his neck and blinked. “Oh, Kaoru. Good work tonight. If you're done cleaning up, you can go.”  
Kaoru was already untying her apron. “I'm gonna be a little late tomorrow night. It's my sister's birthday and I'm taking her out after team practice gets done. Miko said she'd come in early to cover for me.”  
“Sure, that's fine. Thanks for covering. Be careful going home now, you hear?”  
The young woman just smiled and waved as she wandered off towards the back room. Bokuto flopped down on the stool next to Kuroo with a sigh. “Uwaaaaaah I'm so tired! Hey, Kuroo, I think I'm going to just head out. I'm supposed to meet some friends tomorrow morning.”  
Kuroo patted his friend's shoulder, grinning tiredly. “Yeah. Thanks for your help. I'll call you if I need you again.”  
Bokuto snickered, pulling away in mock disgust. “Kyaah! Kuroo-san only calls me when he wants my body~”  
In response, Kuroo stood, looming over Bokuto who had crossed his arms over his chest like an embarrassed school girl. “Ohoho? But I thought Bokuto-chan liked it when I call-”  
“Hey, lovebirds.” The pair glanced over to where Tsukishima was standing, his messenger bag slung over his shoulder and one eyebrow raised in accusatory bad humor. “We're all ready to leave.” And they were. The staff were all waiting, changed into their street clothes and standing by the front door.  
Kuroo jogged into the back room, hastily changing back into his sweats and grabbing his things. He double-checked the lock on the back door that Kaoru had left through. Keys jingling in his hand, he jogged back up front, ushering everyone out through the front and locking up behind them. The small group lingered briefly, finishing conversations as Kuroo glanced up the empty street. “Ahh, I'm gonna hit that late cafe and get a coffee. I have to come back and do paperwork. Anyone else want to come?”  
A chorus of tired groaning marked the response as a no, and Kuroo waved off his employees. It was only then that he'd noticed that Tsukishima was still waiting, hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie. “Oh, are you joining me then?”  
“I have an early class today and there's no point in trying to get home in time to sleep beforehand. Besides-” Tsukishima stifled a yawn- “I'm hungry.”  
“Well then, right this way.” Kuroo set off, with Tsukishima trailing silently behind him. 

Kuroo liked this time of night the best. He was naturally a late riser, and although he liked to be out in the sun in warm weather, the chill of a late night was something he found invigorating. Besides, this neighborhood was usually really busy during the day, full of businesses and students and people bustling to and fro. Now, with the moon set and the sun still below the horizon, the streets were almost totally empty and they felt alive in a way he'd always found it hard to explain.  
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tsukishima typing something on his phone, and tried to think of something to say. They'd been friends of a sort, back in high school. Not really a friendship as he'd normally describe it, but more than an acquaintance and more than just a school rivalry. They had only ever talked at training camps or games, never traded phone numbers or emails. But then Kuroo had graduated, moved on to college, and five years had passed. Now his scrawny blonde kouhai was even taller than he remembered, and he'd filled out into a lanky, muscular frame. He looked grown up. “So, you're going to school in Tokyo now? Miyagi is a long way from here.”  
“Mm. Well, the school I wanted to attend was here.” Tsukishima tucked his phone back into his pocket.  
“Oho? What are you studying?”  
“Zoology.”  
Kuroo sighed. The kid was just as taciturn as ever. “Zoology in general or...?”  
“Herpetology.”  
“Ehhh... So you're into lizards and stuff?” Dragging information out of Tsukishima was like pulling teeth with tweezers. He just never seemed to want to reveal much. Kuroo had always known that Tsukishima kept things very close, but jeeze. He was trying to be friendly. Would it kill the kid to hold up the other end of a conversation?  
“Kind of. I'm studying turtles.”  
This made Kuroo stop in place and stare blankly as the blonde continued walking a few more steps before realizing that he'd left Kuroo behind. “Turtles?”  
Tsukishima blinked. “That's what I said, yes.”  
“Really? You? Studying turtles?”  
“Shall I write it down for you to reference later?”  
The older man snorted and continued walking. “I wouldn't have expected that of you. You seemed like... I dunno. A psychology kid or something.”  
“I hate psychology. It's a vague pseudo-science based around guessing how other people think.”  
Kuroo couldn't stop the harsh bark of laughter. Tsukishima's sneer was hard to miss. “You're just as brutal as ever, I see.”  
Tsukishima didn't respond and since they were approaching the cafe, Kuroo didn't bother trying to keep talking. The inside smelled like cookies and coffee, and he breathed in deeply and he wandered up to the counter. “Yo, Kagami-san.”  
The older man at the counter glanced up from where he'd been wiping down an espresso machine. “Oh, Kuroo-san. Another late night, I see. Don't you have class tomorrow?”  
“Yeah, but I'm going to skip. I'll have a classmate sign attendance for me, that teacher doesn't care. Can I get my usual, please? Oh, and uh,” Kuroo paused in the act of pulling out his walled. “What would you like, Tsukishima-kun?”  
“Ah, um. Hmm. A mocha cappuccino, please. And... could you warm up a muffin for me?”  
Kagami went about making the drinks like it was second-nature, brewing the espresso and steaming the milk without even looking at what he was doing. It was a bit dangerous, Tsukishima noted. He'd worked for a bit in a coffee shop and he knew how hot the steaming wand could get. But the man did it all with precision, and very shortly there were two steaming mugs and a plate with two warm muffins sitting on the counter before them. Kuroo side-stepped until he'd pushed Tsukishima aside, reaching across him to pay for the drinks. “Nope, my treat. As thanks for helping out.”  
“Thanks.”  
They sat at a table near the front window, and Kuroo sipped his coffee with a contented sigh. “You know, I never liked coffee until I started working at the club.”  
“I'm still not a fan,” Tsukishima admitted, blowing gently on his cup. “But sometimes is okay.”  
“Oh? Are you the energy drink type then?”  
Tsukishima raised an eyebrow over the rim of his cappuccino. “I'm the get-enough-sleep-every-night type.”  
They lapsed into silence. Kuroo picked at his blueberry muffin fitfully. He was hungry, but he was also very tired, and right now his body was telling him that sleep was more important that food. He ignored that, waiting for the coffee to kick in and do its job and forced down the muffin. He kept glancing up at Tsukishima through his side-swept bangs curiously, but the other man was eating his muffin and typing on his phone once again. “So, Tsukishima-kun, do you have a job?”  
Tsukishima put his phone away again and looked up. “Yes.”  
“Is it the kind of job that lets you come be a DJ for me at night? Because you had the club packed, and I really need someone there more than once a week. I'm terrible at it.”  
The blonde seemed to consider this, taking his time eating a piece of his muffin and washing it down with his drink. “That depends,” he said finally, smiling a hard, sweet little smile that Kuroo recognized, “on who is paying me better, really. The other place isn't that great, but it pays the bills and lets me work around my school schedule.”  
Kuroo tried to keep the hope off his face and out of his voice as he asked how much Tsukishima was making, and when the man told him, he almost laughed in relief. “I can pay you half as much again. Thursday through Sunday, six to three. The first weekend of every month we have a special underage event for kids between sixteen and eighteen, and we usually do holiday-themed events, too. Plus, if business picks up, I always work bonuses in for everyone.”  
“I suppose I could do that. I don't have any other really early classes, just the one.”  
“Really?!” Kuroo couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice as he set down his coffee. “Seriously, you are single-handedly saving me. I mean, we aren't, like, going out of business, but we certainly aren't doing great.”  
Tsukki merely smiled calmly, just a gently tug of his mouth to one side. “I'll keep that in mind when the bonuses come around.”  
Kuroo found himself grinning in response. “We'll see how well you can keep it up. Is it good for a young'un like you to be up so late past his bed time?”  
“Well gosh, Kuroo-san. If you're that worried about my health, maybe I just won't take your offer. You're right, I probably should make sure I'm getting my beauty sleep.” Tsukki's smile turned faintly malicious as his eyebrows went up. “After all, looking at you I can see how terrible of a toll it's taken on you...”  
“You're still such a smartass.”  
“Fire burns if you play with it, Kuroo-san.” Tsukishima stood abruptly and grabbed his bag off the back of his chair. “I can't be there next weekend, I'm going home to visit. But otherwise, the schedule is fine.”  
“Eh? Are you done already?” Kuroo chugged the last of his coffee, scalding his throat as he did, and struggled to pull on his hoodie as Tsukishima headed for the door. “Thanks, Kagami-san!”  
“Good night, Kuroo-san! See you tomorrow.”  
Tsukishima was already out the door and halfway down the block by the time Kuroo caught up with him. “What's the deal, leaving like that? Did I offend you or something?”  
“I'm going to go take a nap at a manga cafe before class. There's one not far from here, right?”  
“Right after drinking coffee?”  
“I'm tired.”  
Kuroo blinked. “Well okay then. I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well?”  
Tsukishima only raised his hand as he continued walking away. 

Kuroo let himself back into the club through the back door. He settled down in the office and stared at the pile of mail and paperwork that he'd let gather there on his desk. With a sigh, he began to sort through it.  
When Kuroo had first started working at The Cattail, it had been as a bouncer. A college friend who had bought the place after graduating begged him to help, and Kuroo couldn't abandon a hopeless cause. It was a failing of his, he knew it. So when his friend's health had begun to fail in addition to the club beginning a death spiral, Kuroo stepped up. He started taking more days until he was there all the time. It strained his school schedule, but Kuroo didn't mind some extra work and lost sleep.  
And then his friend had been hospitalized. It was cancer, though now Kuroo couldn't remember what kind. The fast kind, apparently, because less than a month later Kuroo was receiving papers that told him The Cattail had been signed over into his name and two weeks after that, he was attending a funeral.  
Honestly, it wasn't a terribly hard place to run. Once he'd weeded out the useless workers, Kuroo had had a much smoother time. But for some reason, djs ran through his club like a case of bad diarrhea.  
Kenma would smack him for the crude simile.  
But that was the truth. There were a few extras to help out on weekends, but the regular crew were all spectacularly good at what they did. Kuroo had surrounded himself with good employees, he knew he paid well, and the club was only two stops away from the college. It was prime territory for that kind of business. And yet... and yet, getting someone to stand up on the small platform and play popular dance music nonstop for hours was apparently an impossible task.  
He was hoping that maybe Tsukishima would be able to change the trend. The kid had been quiet, closed-off, and more than a little acidic, but he was surprisingly loyal. And hard work obviously didn't scare him; Karasuno's volleyball team had been to nationals all three years he'd attended, and it certainly wasn't blind chance that they'd made it that far. Besides, if all else failed he'd be able to harrass Kenma and The Shrimp about it.  
Ahh, maybe he'd take Kenma out for lunch later as thanks for the help. There was that ramen place near the college that he liked a lot. Yeah. Kuroo began writing with renewed vigor. He'd finish all this, go home, shower, take a nap, and then meet Kenma for lunch. Great plan, he always felt better after a little time with his childhood friend. 

In the manga cafe, Tsukishima curled up on the recliner in his booth and slipped his headphones on, falling asleep almost immediately. 

\---

Kenma yawned as he walked slowly up the stairs of the train station. Kuroo was waiting there, leaning against a barrier with his hands in his pockets and looking as stylishly bored as it was possible to do. A couple of women walking by giggled to each other, glancing at him several times as they passed. “Hey, Kuroo.”  
“Oh, Kenma. I wasn't sure you were actually gonna come. You never responded to my message.”  
“I was asleep.”  
Kuroo laughed. “Do you ever get up before ten anymore?”  
“Not if I can help it,” Kenma shuddered at the thought. “Besides, are you one to talk?”  
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Come on, I'm hungry.”  
Kenma covered a yawn again, digging his hands into his hoodie pockets with a sigh. “Why are you buying me lunch?”  
Kuroo looked comically shocked, gasping in hurt disbelief. “I can't decide to buy my beloved friend a meal without him being suspicious?”  
“No.”  
“Ouch. Well, fine. It's thanks for pointing Tsukishima my way. He's gonna be my new regular.”  
“Then you should be taking Shouyou out instead. He's the one who thought of him.”  
“I didn't know that, so you can take him out to lunch in my honor next time you see him.”  
“Mm.”  
They continued walking in companionable silence. Kuroo enjoyed that; he didn't feel the need to carry a conversation with Kenma the way he did with others. The two of them didn't need it, they had long ago moved past the stage of friendship where they talked about everything. Now they were comfortable being silent around each other, and while Kuroo no longer knew every detail of Kenma's life, he felt confident that if asked, Kenma would say that he was his best friend. And that was okay. As children, they'd been the kind of friends where Kuroo dragged Kenma along after him. In high school, there had been an almost co-dependency between them; Kenma's growing friendship with Hinata and Kuroo's graduation had slowly forced that to change. Now, with them both as adults, Kenma had grown into a quiet but intelligent young man with an eye for game design and Kuroo was working his butt off to get his medical degree. 

The ramen shop was pleasantly warm and smelled of pork and miso. They sat at the bar, ordering takoyaki to share.  
“So Tsukishima-kun worked out last night?”  
“Hmm?” Kuroo blinked out of his spacey daze. “Oh, yeah. He was so popular, people were calling their friends to come see. I think his pretty face drew a bunch of them in, too.”  
“Good.” Kenma popped one of the small fried dough balls into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “I wasn't sure about it, you guys never seemed to get along in high school. He always had his back up around you.”  
“I think he had his back up around everyone.”  
“No, he was fine with Akaashi-san and Bokuto-san.”  
Kuroo pouted. “Well, I did annoy him at that one training camp. I think I hurt his pride or something.”  
“Is Ume-san still hitting on you?” Kenma's abrupt change of subject seemed rather more purposeful than usual, but Kuroo didn't bother questioning it.  
“I think she has her eyes on Tsukishima now, actually. Which, well... good luck to her, I say. Tsukishima seems like he'd go for older women, but I think Ume won't be able to handle his attitude.”  
Kenma hummed, but their ramen was being placed in front of them, and talking was replaced with eating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tad bit longer, this time. Don't worry, they'll get longer as I go.


	3. Chapter 3

Kuroo stared at the cast in dismay. “How long...?”  
“It's only a simple fracture, but... six weeks.” Ichirou's shoulders sagged as presented his injured arm for his boss's inspection. “But- But I can still help around the bar! I can still carry things with my other arm, and I can pour and serve.”  
Ume shrugged her shoulders, holding her hands up in a helpless gesture. “I told him that he should just stay home, I'd handle it by myself for a while, but he was determined.”  
Kuroo scrubbed a hand through his messy hair and sighed. “Look, Ichirou, I won't stop you. I know you need the money. But take it easy, okay? I can put you on the door and work the bar with Ume if it gets to be too much. Don't hurt yourself more.”  
A knock at the front door made the trio jump. Miko hurried over to unlock the door and let in Tsukishima, who walked in out of breath and looking flustered. “Tsukishima-kun, are you okay?” she asked, frowning.  
“Yeah. Train was full, so I had to run here.” Tsukishima caught his breath with a huffing sigh and pushed his hair out of his face. The warm humidity of late spring had done nothing to make the run an easy trip.  
“We don't open for another forty-five minutes, Tsukishima, you could have just waited for the next train.” Kuroo wandered over, leaving Ichirou and Ume to bicker about the division of labor. Tsukishima had gone home at some point in the day, which was a relief. He'd at least changed his clothes. “All I ask is that you give me a call if you're gonna be late.”  
Tsukishima shrugged, noting the loss of the honorific. “I needed the exercise anyway. Besides, I don't have your number. I'd have to message Hinata, who would have to message Kenma. By the time you heard from them, I'd have gotten here anyway.”  
“Oh, right. Here, give me your phone.” Kuroo took the proffered phone, grinning when he saw that the background was a picture of Tsukishima crouched on a beach next to a tremendous turtle. He looked younger, though physically Kuroo could tell that the picture had to have been recent. Something about the excited grin and the two fingers flashing a victory sign, though, made him seem much more youthful. A few quick taps and Kuroo added his number to Tsukishima's contacts list, handing it back with a smirk. “You should smile like that more often, it makes you look like a normal human being.”  
Tsukishima smiled, but it was a tense, quiet little thing with a hint of a threat behind it. “I would, if I had more reason to.” He glanced down at the list of contacts and froze. There, under his most recent list, was the name 'Kuroo-sama' followed by a string of about seven different heart emoji. “What the-”  
Makoto looked over Tsukishima's shoulder and laughed. “He got you too, huh? In my phone, he put himself in as 'Most Revered Boss'. I think for Kaoru he was 'the hottie from work'.”  
Eyes narrowing, Tsukishima held out his hand. “Here _Kuroo-sama_ , let me add my number to your phone too.”  
“Ah, no, that's okay. You can just message me and I'll add you from that.” Kuroo had to actually tell himself not to step backwards from the cold fury on Tsukishima's face. Show no fear, right? Animals could sense fear, and at that moment, Kuroo felt like he was facing down a tiger.  
“No, no, it's fine. Here, just let me do it.” The ice had melted from Tsukishima's voice, to be replaced by a calmness that felt like the eye of a storm. Kuroo sagged. He knew, somewhere within him, that if he didn't let Tsukishima have his small revenge now that the man would find some other way of getting back at him and Kuroo wasn't sure he wanted it to be a surprise. “Here,” he said, handing over his phone.  
It was the work of a moment and Tsukishima was handing it back, his face impassive again. “I'm going to go change and then I want to run a few quick sound tests. Will you guys be bothered if I have the volume up when I do it?”  
No one minded, and Kuroo was left standing by himself, staring down at the phone in his hand. There, in his contacts, was the name 'Tsukki' and a single turtle emoji. He laughed, throwing his head back and guffawing as he saw that his background picture was now an image of Tsukishima, obviously unhappy with his picture being taken, flipping off the camera with flat-eyed disdain. When he'd managed to send it to Kuroo's phone he wasn't really sure, maybe it was in a message he'd already deleted. Still, he'd keep that one, make it _Tsukki's_ contact image. It was so suitable. 

Kuroo stood just outside the door and glanced at his watch. It was nearly twelve on a Friday night, and he had already screened everyone inside. The dance floor was packed once again, a college-aged crowd bouncing and gyrating to the incessant beat of the music Tsukishi-- _Tsukki_ was blasting for them. Two older men stumbled by him on the sidewalk, chatting drunkenly with each other as they headed for the bus stop. Kuroo sighed, leaning against the door frame and staring up through the street lights at the dark blue sky. The nights were growing colder, but the warmth radiating from the club was enough to keep him comfortable.  
He glanced inside again, scanning the crowd for anything out of place. Kuroo kept a pretty strict policy about customer conduct in the club: one warning, and then you're out. It had served him well thus far, and had earned The Cattail a good reputation with young women who just wanted to go out and party with their friends, not get accosted by semi-drunk jerks with one thing on the brain between their legs. All his employees knew the rules, and they were vigilant. A couple of times Ume had set Ichirou on overly intrusive people sitting at the bar, and Miko wasn't afraid to drag him off the door if it wasn't something she could handle alone. Makoto was the type to kill with kindness, which Kuroo admired because it was a skill he had never quite managed to learn. Kaoru, on the other hand, could inject so much threat and venom into her words that even she, small and cute as she was, rarely had to speak to anyone twice. He knew that Tsukki had been chatting with the others about how things worked at The Cattail, and that rule had been one of the first things he'd been told about. Kuroo wondered how Tsukishima would handle those kinds of situations.  
He snickered to himself, imagining Tsukki towering over some of his patrons and staring them down with that look he adopted when he stared down an opposing spiker.  
“Yo, Kuroo!”  
He looked up to see Bokuto approaching with Akaashi in tow. “Weren't you just here last night? Don't you have a life?”  
Bokuto laughed raucously, which was probably the only way he knew how to laugh. Bokuto didn't seem like the chuckling type. “I wanted to show Akaashi our little protege. He's doing well again tonight, I see.”  
“I wouldn't have pegged Tsukishima as the dj type, honestly,” Akaashi shrugged. “I was curious.”  
“Ah, well, go on in. I expect a full report later!” Kuroo called after his friends as they waded into the noisy club. As the door closed behind them, the blast of music once again subsided into a dull throbbing. This was working out better than he'd planned.  
That was, until Ichirou showed up at the door with an unhappy expression. “I can't keep up with them, Boss. I need you to take over, or else Ume is going to kill someone.”  
Kuroo sighed. “Yeah, no problem. You know the deal. I'll come check on you in case you need help.”  
Inside, Kuroo slid into the bar smoothly, rolling up his shirt sleeves and tossing a towel over his shoulder. “Ume-san,” he called down the length of the bar, “your wonderful boss is here to help you!”  
Her response was to point to a boisterous crowd who all seemed to be waiting to order. Taking the hint, Kuroo set about making drinks. 

Once again, Tsukishima began to wind the music down and the lights came up at 2. Exhausted from running back and forth along the bar, Kuroo let Makoto and Ichirou chase out the last of the customers as he flopped down with a sigh. Bokuto and Akaashi, who had stayed until the end, flopped down on stools next to him. “I get a feeling of deja vu,” Kuroo muttered, stretching his back as his servers started retrieving glassware and Tsukishima set about shutting down his equipment.  
“What?” Bokuto blinked.  
“Nothing, never mind. So? How was it?”  
Akaashi looked around, admiring the efficiency of Kuroo's staff. “You mean you couldn't tell?”  
“I was up to my elbows in alcohol. No, I couldn't really tell.”  
“Hmm... He's really good at working a crowd,” Bokuto said thoughtfully, folding his arms behind his head. “Like, he's always watching and plays what's appropriate when it's right.”  
“He notices when everyone's getting restless and plays music that makes you want to dance,” Akaashi added. “And when the floor is getting too worked up, he slows it down and gets people relaxed again.”  
“Huh.” Kuroo watched as Tsukishima got snagged into a conversation by Kaoru and Miko and shook his head. “Ah, once those two start, they'll never let him go. I'd better go free my newest employee. Hey,” he paused in the act of standing to turn and smile at the other two, “thanks for coming. Though, for how often you guys help me out I should probably just hire you.”  
“I already have a fine job,” Akaashi replied, standing up. “Speaking of which, I have to go home and sleep so that I don't miss it. Good luck, Kuroo-san. Hopefully we can all get together one night soon when you aren't tending the club.”  
“Don't feel bad,” Bokuto murmured, following Kuroo over to the chatting trio. “You know Akaashi isn't really a night club kind of person. I'm surprised he came along at all, honestly. Hey, hey, Tsukishima! Where did you get this amazing skill, huh?”  
Tsukki looked up from the other two and smiled modestly. “Well, I've always liked music, Bokuto-san, so-”  
“Drop the -san!” Bokuto laughed. “We're practically besties now.”  
“A-are we?”  
Kuroo stared. “Are you?”  
“Sure! We were friends back in high school, right? Now that we're adults, we're basically like childhood friends, right?”  
Kaoru and Miko were staring as well. “I don't think that's really how that works, Bokuto-san,” Kaoru started, confusion spread across her face. “I-I think that Boss and Kenma-kun are much more like childhood friends.”  
“Because we _are_ ,” Kuroo replied, throwing his arms over Bokuto's shoulders. “Don't mind him, Tsukki, Bokuto has never really understood personal boundaries.”  
“Whaaa? You're the one calling him _Tsukki_ now!” Bokuto folded his arms and huffed.  
Kuroo brandished his phone proudly. “ _I_ got permission!”  
At the bar, Ume raised her eyebrow as Tsukishima sat down. “What is their problem with you?”  
Tsukishima just shook his head tiredly and took out his phone watching it steadily. “If I knew, I would put a stop to it.”  
“I-it's just because they like you so much, Tsukishima-kun. Isn't that a good thing?”  
“No. They were like this back in high school, too. Loud, nosy, and unobservant. Bokuto doesn't know the meaning of humility and Kuroo doesn't know when to stop, it's terrible. They get so wrapped up in each other. Look, they haven't even realized that I walked away yet,” Tsukishima pointed at the bickering pair by the DJ table.  
Ichirou sat down as well, cradling his cast with his good arm and wincing. “They've been like that since before I was hired, though. I always just assumed they'd been, like, best friends forever or something.”  
Tsukishima sipped his drink and shrugged. “I don't know if I'd call them best friends. They were friendly in high school, but the school rivalry kind of blunted that for everyone. Well, everyone except Hinata and Kenma, actually. But neither of them is really a good metric for normalcy.”  
“I wonder if they're lovers or something?” Miko leaned on her broom handle, one finger supporting her chin in a thoughtful gesture. The group at the bar fell silent and stared at her. “What? Don't they seem like an old married couple to you? I can't be alone in this!”  
“Hey! If you guys are done working, go get your stuff and go home. I don't pay you to stand around chatting!” Kuroo stomped over in high bad humor; it was pretty obvious that whatever the outcome of his argument with Bokuto, it wasn't the one he wanted.  
“You barely pay us at all, Kuroo-san,” Ume snorted, taking Tsukishima's glass and washing it quickly.  
“And yet you stay. What does that say about you, hmm?”  
Tsukishima followed the others into the back room and grabbed his bag off a hook. “Boss is really in a mood tonight, isn't he?” Kaoru asked the air as she quickly changed her shirt and let her hair down out of her working ponytail.  
“He probably didn't sleep much today,” Tsukishima said, sliding his headphones on. “See you guys tomorrow.”

And that became the new norm. April passed gently into May, and May moved gradually into June. Business grew steadily, to the point where Kuroo had to hire two bouncers and another waiter, while he ran around doing whatever needed doing. The Cattail was becoming a popular spot for the college students; not old enough to seek a mature setting, but not so young as to drive away a drinking crowd. They kept their first-weekend-underaged-events, and even saw an uptick in those groups, too. Ume was constantly going back and forth with Ichirou, dreaming up new cocktails in tune with the season, most recent holiday, or whatever pop-culture fad was trending at the moment. Kaoru, Miko, Makoto, and now Shouta were campaigning for an update to the interior, though Kuroo kept shooting them down.  
The idea was growing on, him, though. The Cattail was not a new establishment when his friend had taken over, and it was even less new now that he was running it. Furniture was expensive, though, and just thinking about what it might cost to start replacing things at the club made his wallet hurt.  
But still, things were looking up for Kuroo. His grades were good, and even with the end of the semester exams looming, he found it hard to feel stressed. Maybe that was why he'd suggested that everyone should go out for Miko's birthday. They'd ended up at a bar, the kind of place salarymen went to drink with their coworkers. Not really the kind of place he'd have pegged their group for, but still, the drinks and food were good, and Kuroo found himself laughing as Ichirou recounted a tale about a young woman who had rather handily turned down the man who had been hitting on her the night before last.  
“...and she just turns around and walks away, and he doesn't even know what just happened!”  
“That was brutal,” Shouta sighed. “And he probably didn't even understand the full extent of the damage until he sobered up the next day.”  
Kaoru laughed, and maybe it was Kuroo's imagination but it almost sounded a little cruel. “I saw him get shut down, she was not nice about it at all. But that guy had been making an ass of himself all night.”  
“I don't blame her at all,” Miko nodded along, beer held halfway to her lips. “Sometimes you have to hammer the nail extra hard to drive the point home.”  
“Right?!” Ume, sitting on the same side as the other two girls, was navigating tipsy and heading towards pleasantly drunk.  
“I know some women that that applies to as well,” Tsukishima said, his smirk belying the gentle tone in his voice. He was very slightly flushed and partway through his third beer.  
“Yeah, come on now, it goes both ways!” Ichirou was indignant as he took a drink. “Though I wouldn't know!”  
Kuroo patted the man's shoulder pityingly. “It's okay, man. One day.”  
“Did you girlfriend not work out?” Miko asked, reaching for the pliers and cracking herself a roasted ginko nut.  
“She didn't even think we were dating!” Ichirou wailed, flopping his head down into his hands. He didn't notice the sudden case of awkward coughing that was totally not to hide snorts of laughter.  
Tsukishima was the only one who didn't bother to disguise his pity. “Seriously? Haven't you been going out with this woman for two months? How did this misunderstanding go on that long?”  
Ume sighed, reaching across to pat Ichirou's back. “Apparently he thought she was really shy, because they'd only been going out on group dates.”  
“At your age?” Kaoru looked genuinely surprised. “Ichirou-san, I am almost disappointed in how terribly naive that is of you.”  
“You should ask Tsukishima for tips,” Shouta suggested. “He's really popular with our female customers.”  
“Tsukki!” Ichirou, who had taken several healthy leaps down the road to drunkenness, turned desperate eyes on his coworker.  
Tsukishima took a moment to sip from his beer, and if Kuroo had been entirely sober he would have bet money it's because he was fighting a blush. “I'm not the best person to ask,” he said, putting his beer down and reaching out to snag some karaage.  
“Really? You're so popular, though,” Makoto looked genuinely surprised. “Do you just not like flirting?”  
“No,” Tsukishima said slowly, “I'm just not into women. I'm gay. Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom.” He pushed away from the table and headed for the restrooms, leaving his coworkers to blink in surprise.  
“Wha—Really?” Kuroo blinked after him. “That's new.”  
Ume sighed. “Ahh, well, it's for the best. He's too young for me anyway.”  
“But he's just my age!” Miko pouted. “Damn it, all the hot ones are always gay! It's not fair!”  
Kuroo stopped paying attention as the others chewed on Tsukishima's admission and gradually filed it away amongst themselves under the 'Whatever, Man' heading. Had Tsukki been gay back in high school? Well, not that they'd really known each other that well. I mean, he'd always kind of had a thing with that freckled kid... what was his name? He couldn't remember. But, now that he thought about it, Tsukki never really mentioned girlfriends. Some of his Karasuno friends sometimes (Sugawara and Sawamura had both also gone to school in Tokyo, apparently), and his teachers and classmates. And his actual classes. Kuroo had never seen someone so excited about an alligator snapping turtle. He'd actually let Tsukki drag him all the way out to Ueno Zoo one day to show him their newest addition. It was endearing to see the ice king get worked up about something, even something as horrifying as whatever hellspawn the snapping turtle actually was. “Eh, what? Sorry, I zoned out. What?”  
“I said, it's your turn for the next round,” Tsukishima repeated, sliding into his seat. “Don't think too hard, you don't want your brain to overheat.”  
“Hey, Tsukishima,” Kaoru had lost the impromptu game of rock-paper-scissors for this. “Hey, so, we all wanted to say this while we were still drunk enough to be able to, so...”  
Kuroo blinked. He really had lost a lot of the conversation. What was Kaoru talking about?  
“So, I guess, um, thanks for feeling comfortable telling us you're gay?” Miko smacked her arm. “Well, anyway, thanks. We don't really care. That is—we aren't offended or grossed out or anything. A-and anyway, Kuroo-san is bi, so it's not even really surprising or unusual, I guess.”  
“Hey now. I didn't come here to have my deepest, darkest secrets outed for me,” Kuroo sighed. Not that it was really a secret; Kuroo always said he'd hit on anyone that was hot enough.  
“So...” Kaoru was stumbling to a halt, and everyone was staring fixedly at Tsukishima. The young man seemed to be studying his drink, his face composed into a perfectly calm mask. As the expectant silence dragged on, Kuroo narrowed his eyes and watched his face carefully. Finally sure of what he had seen, he reached over and slapped Tsukishima's shoulder.  
“Hey! Don't be rude. We're trying to tell you that we don't care what your orientation is, you're a wonderful unique person and everyone loves you anyway.”  
Suddenly, the facade broke and Tsukishima broke into laughter. “Oh man, what? What was that?!” He paused to laugh again, clutching his sides and shaking. “Did you guys really think I cared that much? I mean, no offense or whatever, but—really?!”  
The tension at the table eased instantly. Kaoru groaned, flopping backwards in her chair. “Jeeze, Tsukishima! I was actually scared for you for a minute!”  
“I was just trying not to _laugh_ at you. That was _the_ worst we-don't-mind-that-you're-gay talk I've ever gotten, Kaoru!”  
“Give me a break, I'm drunk!”  
“We all are,” Kuroo admitted. “And at least half of us have class tomorrow. We should probably get going soon.”  
“Noooo,” Miko whined, draining her fourth beer. “It's my birthday!”  
Makoto and Kaoru stood on either side of her. “We'll take her home,” Makoto said, pulling Miko to her feet.  
“No horseplay now!” Ume called as the trio giggled their way drunkenly out onto the street. She followed them, comforting the still depressed Ichirou with Shouta trailing awkwardly behind. Tsukishima heaved a sigh as he made for the door with Kuroo at his heels.  
“You've started dropping honorifics,” Kuroo commented as they both headed for the bus stop.  
Tsukishima shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Eh. We're drunk and they did it first. Besides, I'm pretty sure they're just all taking your lead.”  
“Oh man,” Kuroo bent over suddenly, bracing himself on his knees. “Oh man, I should not have had that last beer.”  
“Wait. Are you really that drunk?” Tsukishima started looking for grass or a trash can or somewhere, _anywhere_ he could lead Kuroo to throw up. “Shit, uh... Look, there's a bench. Go sit down. I'll grab you water from the machine over there.” Tsukishima jogged off as Kuroo navigated himself to the bench and leaned forward, breathing deeply in the warm and slightly humid late spring air. Shortly after he sat, an icy bottle of water was pressed into his hand. “Drink,” Tsukishima commanded.  
Kuroo obeyed.  
Several minutes later, he was feeling better. “Damn, I'm getting out of practice. This used to be nothing,” Kuroo muttered. “Curse my recovering liver.”  
“Will you be okay going home? You live, like, six stops from here.”  
“Don't have much choice, do I?”  
There was an extended pause before Tsukishima said, “I'm only one stop from here. We could walk to my apartment.”  
Kuroo blinked and took a moment to process the information and unspoken invitation. “I was wondering how you knew that bar.”  
“It's quiet on weekdays, and one of the bartenders is hot.”  
“Oho? Which one, was he there tonight?”  
“No, he only works weekends.”  
“Aww, that means you don't get to see him much any more.”  
“He's also in my marine biology class.”  
Kuroo's interest was piqued. “Ohoho? Bit of study time flirting for you, then? Clandestine meetings in the library?” He tried to leer, but in his drunken state wasn't sure he managed to pull it off.  
“Not really. He's straight.” Tsukishima stood, taking his and Kuroo's bottles and recycling them. “So, you can try and take the bus home or you can come stay over my place and sober up. I can skip class tomorrow, and I know you usually miss your Tuesday morning class.”  
“I...” Kuroo paused to consider, and realized he'd begun listing gently to the left. “I should not be left alone on a bus.”  
“Come on, then.”

  
\---  


The walk to Tsukishima's apartment wasn't bad. The neighborhood was nice enough, but obviously aimed at college students. They passed several other apartment buildings on their way. Tsukishima lived in the corner apartment on the second floor. It was prime territory, with windows in one wall that were open to the night breeze.  
It was also surprisingly cluttered. Kuroo had pegged Tsukishima as the kind of cleanly that was borderline anal retentive. Instead, what he found was a smallish one-room apartment with a separate kitchen and bathroom. Against one wall was a bed, and across from that was a desk with a laptop sitting on it. Next to the desk was a fish tank that was almost as long as Kuroo was tall. Papers, text books, and clothes littered the floor and desk in neat but scattered piles. “Pardon my intrusion,” Kuroo muttered as he watched Tsukishima rushing around to straighten up.  
“Just let me fold the table away and I'll set out the guest futon. The bathroom is through there, if you need it.”  
Kuroo took the opportunity to pee while Tsukishima finished straightening up. He was just laying out the futon as Kuroo reemerged and wandered over to stare at the tank. It was carefully lit, he could see, but less than half full of water. Part of it was partitioned off with sand and soil, and a log almost as thick as Kuroo's arm was floating along the surface surrounded by greenery. “Weird fish tank,” he said as Tsukishima came over to look as well.  
“Its not for fish. I have turtles.”  
Kuroo snorted. “Oh yes, of course. I should have expected. Where are they?”  
“Hmm...” Tsukishima pointed into the shadows under the log. “Haru is here, she likes to hide under the log with just her head sticking out. And Aki and Fuyu are over on this end, they like to hang out on the log. And Natsu is over there, basking. See the spots?”  
If you'd asked Kuroo how he could have missed the tumorous lumps on the log that were speckled with vibrant yellow spots, he would have admitted he had no idea but was reasonably sure the alcohol was to blame. “They're... freckled.”  
“They're spotted turtles,” Tsukishima corrected, flicking a switch and adjusting the light setting on the tank to something blue. “One of my teacher's friends was moving and couldn't keep them any more, so I offered to take them in. They're a bit old; apparently she'd had them from a family member who had kept them for several years.”  
“How old is quite old?” Kuroo asked, watching the one on the log slowly moving to the soil area, where a heat lamp was stationed.  
“I think they're about 45.”  
“Holy-” Kuroo's head snapped around. “How old do they get?!”  
Tsukishima paused in opening his closet door and blinked over. “Spotted turtles can live for well over 100 years. The oldest on record is 150.”  
“Damn.”  
“It's interesting that there's a pet that could outlive its owner, don't you think?” Tsukishima began to take off his shirt, switching it for something loose that was probably his normal pajamas. “Unlike hamsters, or fish, or even dogs. You could hand turtles down through the family like heirlooms.”  
Kuroo struggled not to stare. Not only was it rude, it would probably give Tsukishima the wrong idea. But the man was stacked and Kuroo was a bit jealous. He wasn't even playing volleyball regularly anymore, and Tsukishima still looked as fit as he did in high school. It wasn't fair!  
He was staring, but Tsukishima wasn't paying attention. He turned quickly to stare at the turtles again as Tsukishima traded his jeans in for loose athletic shorts. “Isn't that what happened with these two?” he asked, for something to say that wasn't _God Damn, Son_. A similar pair of shorts hit him in the side of the head.  
“You should change. I'm going to get you more water.” Tsukishima headed for the kitchen and Kuroo did as he was bid. Tsukishima's shorts were a bit long and a little snug on his waist, but still fairly comfortable. He pulled off his own shirt and kept on the undershirt he'd been wearing. Tsukishima returned with two glasses, and he sat on the floor with his back to the side of his bed, watching the turtles.  
Kuroo sipped his water and watched too, scooting over until his back was against the bed as well. “They don't do much, do they?”  
Tsukishima stared over at him. “They're turtles. What, do you want them to do tricks? I'm just lucky these two haven't drowned in their own tank water yet, spotted turtles can do that if you're not careful. There's a reason I keep the level so low and the bottom so built up with stuff.”  
“How would I know? I'm studying sports medicine, not herpes—harpet... turtle science!”  
“Have you ever heard the phrase 'living fossil'?”  
Kuroo paused. “Maybe?”  
The snort wasn't hard to miss. “It's a phrase used to describe animals that are easily traceable through the fossil record for unusually long periods of time. Like, for example, the oldest sea turtle fossil so far was found in Colombia-”  
Kuroo was trying to follow, but he didn't even know what or where Colombia was.  
“-and it's estimated to be 120 million years old. But it was already so specialized! Scientists think that could mean that there were sea turtles even earlier in time than that.”  
That was... a long time ago. Kuroo was trying really hard to focus now, but the alcohol buzz was beginning to fade and he was getting sleepy. He let Tsukishima go on, making affirmative noises every now and then to encourage him. It was nice, sitting here and listening to Tsukki; he got this tone in his voice when he got excited about something. Kuroo didn't hear it often, but if it meant listening to history facts about turtles, he'd gladly take a lesson.  
“Just think about it. There were sea turtles living at the same time as ankylosaurus and suchomimus. And deinonychus, too. You know I was a dinosaur kid?”  
“Were you?” Kuroo murmured, laying his head back against the mattress. “I could see it.”  
“I started being interested in turtles because they live so long and go so far back. Sea turtles saw the dinosaurs. It's fascinating.”  
“Mm.”  
“You're not listening, are you?”  
“Mm. I am.”  
“What did I just say?”  
“You like turtles because their great-great-etcetera ancestors saw dinosaurs and you're jealous you didn't.”  
Tsukishima snorted. “That's not quite right.”  
“You are really cute when you get excited about turtles.”  
They both froze.  
“Shit, jeeze, I'm sorry.” Kuroo sat up with a start. “That was the alcohol talking, I am so sorry.” Tsukishima didn't say anything, just started in blinking surprise, so Kuroo continued to babble to fill the awkward silence. “You know how you say whatever happens to be on your mind when you're drunk? Even if, ah shit, that wasn't really on my mind, it just kind of occurred to me and I'm still SO drunk and will you please say something icy and cutting like usual so I can shut up?” He glanced over to find Tsukishima blushing.  
“Holy shit, are you embarrassed?”  
“I-uh,” For the first time in his life, Kuroo found Tsukishima at a loss for words. “I'm drunk too, you know. Not all of us just blurt out whatever is on our minds.”  
“You are! Oh my god, you're embarrassed because I said you were cute!”  
“So what if I am!”  
“ _So_ it makes the situation worse because now I know you're gay and I don't want you to feel like I'm just hitting on you just because of that or whatever, and the way you blush just makes you cuter!” Kuroo was so drunk. So drunk and so, so dead. But the alcohol that was flooding his brain was cheering him on, and he figured why not go for broke. He'd be dead by morning anyway. “And I kind of really want to kiss you!”  
There was a little clicking sound like Tsukishima literally biting back whatever sprang to his tongue, bringing his teeth together in shock. Again the silence was beginning to build, and Kuroo suddenly realized that Tsukishima was good a silences, he wove them around himself like a protective shield while he gathered his thoughts and let the other guy dangle. It was a dangerously effective tactic against Drunk Kuroo, who had no patience and no filter between his brain and his mouth.  
“I-” Tsukishima took a deep breath and tried again, “Okay.”  
This was a terrible idea, he knew. He could feel it, like his body was trying not to lean in, to turn towards the bright red and defiantly staring Tsukishima. The sober fraction of Kuroo's brain was screaming at him to stop, no, don't, this is literally your worst decision ever, this will ruin your life, and he didn't care. Their lips met gently; partly because Kuroo was still fighting his own impulse to run, and partly because he'd had way too many sloppy drunken kisses in his life and he wanted this one to be enjoyable. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, but it wasn't quite loud enough to drown out the tiny, happy sigh from Tsukishima. Oh, god that was hot. That was _so _hot and Kuroo was already susceptible and this was still a terrible idea but then Tsukishima's lips moved against his, pressing carefully.__

__Kuroo was screwed. He was so, so screwed and not in the fun, sticky way._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies! We're getting into the meat of the story, so chapters will start getting longer and so will down time between them.  
> Also, a friendly and semi-mandatory reminder that drinking excessively is bad for you, so don't do it, okay?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, everyone. I changed my plot map a bit and that turned into two revisions and a total rewrite of this chapter. But now that that's all done, things should come out more regularly.  
> Unless I remap again. It happens.

When Kuroo woke up, he was surprised. Not because of any specific thing, really, but because he actually did wake up. He had expected Tsukki to murder him, if not outright than in his sleep. Refusing to acknowledge the sun peering in around the thick, dark curtains, he rolled over and grunted as his headache made itself known. He could hear something moving in the kitchen. Either Tsukki was already up and eating breakfast or it was Death coming to collect.  
He kind of wished it was the second one.  
As memory began filtering through his throbbing brain, Kuroo actually groaned. He had been kissing Tsukki, and as far as bad ideas went, that had been simultaneously his best and worst. There had been... hands, he remembered; there had been a lot of hands and not all of them had been his although many of them had been on him. Heavy breathing. Maybe some talking, but whether it was actual words or just meaningless sounds he couldn't recall. And then Kuroo's stomach had heaved, and in a panic he had leapt across the floor and thrown himself into the bathroom to throw up. Sitting there, retching in shame and misery, he had heard the sink in the kitchen, the light click, and had watched the bedroom go dark.  
Laying in the futon now, with the glass that Tsukishima had thoughtfully refilled with water—again—next to him on the floor, Kuroo sighed. He'd cleaned himself up, washed his mouth out in the sink, and shamefully slunk back to bed in the dark. Tsukishima had already fallen asleep, judging by the steady rhythm of his breathing.  
And Kuroo felt like the most complete ass in the world. He was, quite possibly, the worst human being ever. Flailing around until his hand found his carefully folded clothes and therefor his phone, Kuroo opened his messages. It didn't matter that it was barely 9, Kenma would see it when he woke up. 

_Kenma. Kenma, my friend, I have made a terrible mistake._

_Please prepare a funeral service for me._

_I kissed Tsukishima._

For good measure, he threw in a bunch of rather graphic emoji including a celebratory confetti popper, a skull, a puking face, and four balloons.  
“Oh, you're awake. Good. Help me put the futon away and we can bring the table out and eat.” Tsukishima appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, already dressed and looking just peachy that jerk. Was he the kind to not have hangovers? But as Kuroo helped him fold the futon and store it away, he saw the red rims around Tsukki's eyes and noticed the slightly-more-pale-than-usual pallor to his skin. Well, good. He didn't want to be the only one suffering.  
With the futon stowed, the table came out and was set up, and Tsukishima retrieved a few cushions from his closet for them to sit on. “Do you need help with anything?” Kuroo asked, watching as Tsukki returned to the kitchen and seemed to be stirring a pot.  
“Ah, yeah. Sure. Can you peel and quarter these eggs for me?”  
With something to do, Kuroo felt less awkward, but only slightly. He was wondering if Tsukki was waiting for breakfast to bring up last night, or if he was just letting Kuroo hang out to dry until he went crazy. With the eggs peeled and quartered, Tsukki commanded him to put them as well as a few chopped grape tomatoes, assorted steamed veggies, and sliced white scallions into a pair of bowls.  
“Red or white miso?” Tsukki asked, watching the pot in front of him as it began to come to a boil.  
“I don't care.”  
“Okay then.” He spooned some miso paste out of a container and whisked it into the pot, gesturing to two more bowls and a rice cooker plugged in on the only other square foot of counter space available. “Rice in the bowls, please.”  
Kuroo was pleased to find out that Tsukki could cook, and apparently cook well. He carefully mounded the steaming rice into the bowls. It felt so uncharacteristically domestic that he actually wasn't that surprised.  
“How is your stomach? I have ginger or barley tea.”  
“Ginger would be great.” Kuroo carefully laid the rice bowls on a tray alongside the other bowls, into which Tsukishima was ladeling the miso. He tossed in diced fried tofu, and plugged in an electric kettle. The water boiled in only a minute or two as he found and handed Kuroo two sets of chopsticks and spoons. They went on the tray as Tsukki poured two cups of ginger tea, which joined the tray.  
“Is that everything?”  
“Yes.”  
Kuroo carried the tray out to the small table and Tsukki laid out the bowls, and they sat down to eat.  
“This looks amazing, is this what you eat for breakfast every day?” Kuroo asked, sipping at the soup.  
“No, this is my hangover breakfast. Mom used to make it for Akiteru when he'd been out with his friends. Usually I have fruit, yogurt, and toast. I would have made toast to go with this instead of the rice, but I was out of bread.” Tsukki sipped his tea calmly and Kuroo wasn't sure if he should keep making attempts at conversation.  
“You take good care of yourself. This is a good meal for hangovers. Ginger tea for the nausea, or peppermint would work; plenty of sodium in the miso and it's good for your digestion. Both liquids good for rehydrating, too. Veggies are always good for you, and these were steamed before they went in the soup so they kept most of their good stuff in. And eggs. Eggs are great after a night of drinking, they're full of taurine and cysteine. Good for your liver and breaking down leftover acetaldehydes. Whole-wheat toast would probably be better than the rice, but some bland carbs are a good choice. You should add something sweet, though, to help raise blood sugar.”  
Tsukishima stared, his spoon held halfway to his mouth. “What?”  
“You're not the only one who can babble about your major,” Kuroo grinned. “I'm studying medicine, remember? Sports medicine has a big focus on diet, I've taken three classes on it.”  
“Oh, I see.” Tsukishima smirked around his rice. “So you actually have learned something. I'm glad to know that you aren't just wasting your time.”  
“What?” Kuroo spluttered, putting his chopsticks down and managing to look far more offended than he actually was. “And here I was thinking that my beloved kohai ice king had finally grown up and thawed out a bit, but you're still as cool as ever.” What was the word Kenma used? Kuu-dere?  
“Can't it be both?”  
“No!”  
“Maybe you just bring out the worst in me.”  
“I think you like to trot out your inner asshole to put people in their place.” Kuroo's eyes narrowed. “Instead of actually having a conversation about why they're annoying you.”  
“And maybe you like to think that you're closer to people than you actually are.”  
They were silent for a few seconds before Tsukishima put his chopsticks down and drained his tea quickly. “I have to go get food for the turtles. Should I walk you to the bus stop?”  
Okay, that one actually hurt more than he made it look. Kuroo shrugged. “If it's on your way, sure. If not, I can get there myself. Thanks for breakfast.” He collected both of their dishes back onto the tray and made his way to the sink to wash them. 

This... was not what he wanted. Kuroo wasn't sure what he wanted, maybe to apologize for last night or to sit down and talk about what had happened and laugh off their drunken antics. But Tsukki wasn't giving him an opportunity to. Maybe he didn't remember, they had both been pretty drunk. Wait. Maybe Kuroo was remembering a dream or something, not something that actually happened. Was he remembering wrong? It was unlikely, but possible. But wasn't it more likely that Tsukki just recognized that it had been a bad idea and was pretending nothing ever happened?  
Kuroo changed without a word and followed Tsukishima out and down to the street where they separated with a vague wave. He walked right past the bus stop. Sure, it would probably take almost an hour to get home if he walked, but Kuroo could probably use the time to think. No, Kuroo could definitely use the time to think. He didn't get the opportunity to, however, as his phone went off in his pocket. Waiting to cross an intersection, Kuroo checked his new message.

_Were you both drunk?_

_The short answer is yes._

_What is the long answer, do I even want to know?_

_He told us he was gay, we had all been drinking all night, I was_  
_too drunk to go home and his apartment was close, so he let me_  
_spend the night and we were both very drunk, and he talked_  
_about turtles and it was really cute, and I told him I wanted to_  
_kiss him and he said okay and we totally had a hot makeout_  
_session until I almost puked down his throat_

Kuroo deleted his unsent message. It just didn't seem sufficient.

_I cannot accurately describe the long answer via text  
message._

_That was a lot of typing for one line. Do you need to talk?_

_Maybe? I don't know yet._

_Just kiss him again! Tsukishima needs to lsoe the stick up his ass!_

_He's never had a gf you know? Or a bf. He probbly doesn't know what to do._

_You should at leest talk to him about it!_

Kuroo stared at this. Glaring misspellings aside, Kenma would never be so overt in his advice-giving. His eyes narrowed and he began typing. 

_Hey Shrimp, give Kenma his phone back. You're being rude._

_Sorry, I was in the bathroom. Shoyou is probably right,_

_though. And do you want to kiss him again?_

_What? Probably._

_No._

_Yes._

_It's a solid maybe._

_Well I can't help you until you make up your mind. I_

_have to walk Shoyou to the station and then get to_

_class. I'll be gone all day._

_Let me know if you ever make a decision._

_Thanks, bestie._

_Don't call me that._

Kuroo whistled as he continued his walk. He still didn't feel too great about the situation, but he felt better than he had that morning. And maybe Hinata did have a point. Kuroo didn't really know much about Tsukishima's life outside of high school volleyball; had he ever actually dated anyone? He seemed like the kind of tall, cool, uncaring type that girls would fawn over all the time. If he was gay, though, that probably didn't phase him. Well, to be honest, Tsukki didn't seem like he'd care about that kind of thing even if he was straight. He gave off an almost asexual vibe. Kuroo paused to give that some thought. If Tsukki hadn't dated anyone, did that mean he was a virgin? That was a dangerous game to play in your twenties, Kuroo knew. He knew from experience and man had that been embarrassing. Or was Tsukki one of those people who 'save' themselves until marriage? Or, well, whatever the equivalent was since Kuroo was pretty sure that same-sex marriage wasn't legal in Japan yet. Suddenly curious, he looked it up on his phone. It wasn't.   
Without really thinking about it, Kuroo found himself dialing the contact, lifting his phone to his ear, and not paying attention to the ringing tone until Tsukki's voice on the other end finally answered with a curt, “What?”  
“Let's get dinner tonight.” Smooth, right out of the gate. Kuroo winced, but tried to internally play off his distress.  
“No.”  
“Come on, my treat. As thanks for dealing with my drunk ass and then feeding me in the morning.”  
“Not interested.”   
“What? Why not? Cattail's closed tonight and I know you don't have any night classes.” He could hear Tsukishima on the other end, jostling a paper bag. There were people in the background, and he'd answered his phone, so he must have been walking back from wherever he went to buy the turtle food. Kuroo briefly toyed with the idea of turning around and walking back to his apartment and refusing to leave until Tsukki agreed to go out with him, but-- Wait.   
Waitwaitwait. Hold on. No. Get dinner with him, not go out with him. No. Don't go down that road, you don't date employees. Regardless of how hot they were. Kuroo could hear the scoff in Tsukki's voice. “I do have a life. Also finals to study for. Don't you?”  
“So you come over to my place. We can order in and have a study session.”  
“No.”  
“Please?”  
“You sound like a kid.”  
“I'll beg.”  
“Don't care. Bye, Kuroo.”  
“No, wait, don't-” Kuroo sighed as the phone beeped to tell him the call had disconnected. He sighed again, opening his messages as he calculated how many blocks he had left to his apartment. He'd probably be walking for another twenty minutes. He could jog home in fifteen, and if he really put effort out he could probably make it in just over ten.   
He'd want to die when he got in the door, but that wasn't much different from wanting to die of embarrassment here on the street, so Kuroo typed out a quick message complete with a string of emoji and started to jog, warming himself up to a good running pace.   
_I really, really want to kiss Tsukishima again. I am_  
so screwed.  
Kuroo spent the rest of the day alternately napping, cleaning his apartment, and filing old paperwork from the club. He did indeed have a filing cabinet in his rather expensively modern two-room apartment, and that was because he used the offset room as a combination storage-space-slash-office-slash-actual-bedroom. He'd showered once the cleaning was done, and stood staring at himself in the mirror over the sink pensively for several minutes until he snapped out of it and threw on a pair of boxers. In the kitchen, he pondered dinner. He'd gotten vegetables and soba, with the intent of gorging on cold noodles while he binged bad TV, but there was that bit of fish the landlady had given him on his way in. Well, he'd just make less soba.   
The cod fried up beautifully, and he poached his vegetables with a bit of tofu until they just started to soften. The soba was perfect, just firm enough for his liking. Kuroo stared proudly at his spread and sighed. There was enough here for three meals, easily. So much for making less. At least he'd have lunch covered for the next couple of days. Not that bringing a packed lunch to college was cool, exactly, but it was reasonably economical and it was an excuse to find a shady spot outside and enjoy the nice summer weather after class.   
Plates spread on the table in front of him, Kuroo sat down to enjoy his dinner and engage in a bit of brain-melting entertainment. He had finished his meal and was thoroughly engaged in the slapstick antics on the TV when his phone vibrated next to him on the table. Blinking, Kuroo set down his beer and stared at the message.   


_What is your address?_

_Why?_

_Because I need a drink._

Well, that really told him nothing. Kuroo typed out his address and wondered why Tsukishima felt the need to drink with Kuroo, rather than by himself or at the bar with his hot-classmate-bartender. He shrugged it off, though. Tsukki would do what Tsukki wanted to do, and if it also happened to coincide with what Kuroo wanted Tsukki to do, so much the better. He settled down with his beer again, turning his attention back to the TV.  
He wasn't really paying attention to the time, but another episode had already started and ended when Kuroo heard a knock on his door. Well, less of a knock and more of a gentle pound. It sounded, somehow, like Tsukishima. He peered out the peephole and yep, there was Tsukishima on his doorstep, looking disgruntled, dressed up, and carrying what seemed to be beer in a plastic bag.  
“Yo, Tsukki!” Kuroo said, sweeping the door open. “Decided to join me after all? You're a bit late for dinner.”  
“I already ate,” Tsukishima said, walking in and kicking off his shoes in the foyer. “I brought beer.”  
“So I see. Come in, come in!” Kuroo gestured past the kitchen and into the larger living space beyond. He was determined not to ask Tsukishima what had gotten him so riled up, but man was it hard not to. Kuroo was naturally a curious person and if he was being honest with himself, kind of nosy too. And Tsukishima was the kind of closed book that he was just dying to figure out how to read.  
The blonde young man flopped on the floor by the low table, plopping the beer down unceremoniously and just generally frowned disdainfully at everything “Your apartment is pretty big.”  
“Why thank you. Owning a night club allows me to afford to live a comfortable yet modest lifestyle.” Kuroo flopped down beside him and turned down the volume on the TV.  
Tsukishima responded with a raised eyebrow. “And yet you have almost no furniture or personal touches of any kind. Strange, I'd have pegged you as the sentimental type, pictures up on the walls and stuff.”  
“I actually only just moved in here about a month ago. I haven't had time to unpack all of my stuff.” Kuroo looked around and shrugged. He had a table, a TV stand for his TV, a couple of sitting cushions, and not much else. In his bedroom there was a luxuriously new bed, a battered old desk he'd had since his elementary school days, an equally battered but still comfortable chair, and his filing cabinet. Well sure, it was pretty empty, but he was only one man after all. “Sorry I don't have a big tank full of hand-me-down turtles like some people.”

_Kenma help he came over and I'm a_  
_little tipsy and I think he is too and_  
_he brought more beer._

_Ganbatte ne, Kuro._

_You're so unhelpful!_

 

Kenma's response was a flat-eyed emoji and a hand flashing the victory-V. Kuroo dropped his phone in frustration. Tsukki looked from it to him silently, handing over a beer. “Lovers' quarrel?”  
“What?” Kuroo stared around like he was expecting someone else to be in the room. “Me? No. I was messaging Kenma and he was being a jerk.” He took the can and popped it open, drinking deeply in a bid to give himself a moment to think.  
“Oh well, I'm sure you two will get over it soon. You've made it this far, after all.”  
“Oh shut up, you know he's dating Hinata.”  
“Yeah, but you're easy to annoy.”  
“And you're amazingly good at being annoying. It must be a younger-sibling thing.”  
“Yet you continue to talk to me. Kuroo-san must be a masochist.”  
Kuroo laughed. “Maybe I am, maybe I am. So, not that I mind or anything, but why the sudden change of heart?” It made him remember that summer training camp, the only other time Kuroo had seen Tsukki reverse what had seemed like a firm decision. It had been surprising then, too.  
“I decided I wanted a drink.” Tsukishima drank from his own can, watching whatever was on the TV and steadfastly refusing to look in Kuroo's direction. It was unexpectedly cute, for Tsukishima to suddenly seem shy, but Kuroo was not fooled.  
“So you dressed up just for me?”  
Tsukishima raised an eyebrow and peered at Kuroo out of the corner of his eye with a smirk. “What if I did?”  
Ahh, that was a dangerous expression. Kuroo could feel himself slipping out onto thin ice. “Well I would be honored. To be deemed worthy of being dressed up for by Tsukishima-sama is a high honor.”  
Tsukishima grimaced. “I certainly wouldn't have dressed up if I'd known it was going to be this hot in here.” He tugged at the neck of his shirt.  
Kuroo blinked. He'd never really minded the heat, coming from an apartment that didn't have a working air conditioner. “My bad, man. Let me close the windows and turn on the air.” He got up to do that, and wondered if Tsukishima was watching him move around the apartment the way he had watched Tsukishima last night. When he sat back down, Tsukishima sighed.  
Kuroo waited to see if he would say something, but he had gone back to watching TV and drinking beer. With an internal shrug Kuroo turned his attention to the TV as well, and it wasn't until another two episodes of the show had played that he realized that Tsukishima had been very slyly handing him a fresh beer just as he was emptying the previous one. He had three cans in front of him now, two empty and one nearly.  
“Okay, you're just trying to get me drunk.” He turned off the TV and looked at Tsukishima who, once again, was refusing to look his way. “I thought you had a life and finals to study for and you didn't want to get dinner or drink with me.”  
Tsukishima remained silent, staring around the undecorated apartment like there were pictures on the walls that only he could see.  
“Why'd you come over?”  
Silence.  
“I'll whine until you tell me.”  
Still silence.  
“Last warning.”  
Tsukishima remained stubbornly silent. Kuroo sighed, a motion that involved his entire upper body inflating on the inhale and then slumping as he exhaled dramatically. “Tsukki,” he wheedled, his voice rising just slightly in pitch and dragging the last syllable out interminably. “Tell me what's wrong, Tsukki! I just wanna know why you changed your mind. Come on, Tsukki, you can tell me...”  
“God you sound like Yamaguchi when we were kids. Knock it off.”  
Kuroo punched the air. “It can speak!”  
He was graced with a disdainful glare.  
“We can keep playing this game and my whining will get progressively more awful or you can tell me why you're trying to subtly to get me drunk.”  
“Because I don't want to be drunk alone.”  
Kuroo shrugged, forcing himself not to coo and Tsukishima's light flush of embarrassment. “Okay. I can work with that. Why do you want to be drunk?”  
“I am not sober enough to talk about it without strangling someone.” Tsukishima punctuated his statement by downing the last of his beer and popping open another one.  
“Well okay then!” And Kuroo followed suit. 

An hour or two later, or maybe eight hours, Kuroo wasn't really keeping count because he and Tsukki had stumbled upon a quiz show on TV commenced arguing over it like drunken morons, Tsukishima finally heaved the largest, deepest sigh Kuroo had ever seen anyone heave.  
“I had a date tonight.”  
This was new. Kuroo sat up from where he'd lain back on the cool wood of the floor. Even with the air conditioner on, it had grown uncomfortably warm in the apartment again. “Yeah? Nice gir—guy?”  
“I wouldn't know, it was our first date. He was just some guy I'd seen around college, friend of a friend kind of thing.”  
“Ah, a first date then,” Kuroo said with what he was pretty sure was his Wise Senpai tone. “Didn't go well, I assume?”  
“Well it ended when he tried to push me down and have sex with me and I had to punch him, so no. It didn't end well.”  
“Do you have his address? I could go beat ten kinds of hell out of him. And then I could invent an eleventh kind of hell and beat that out of him, too.”  
Tsukishima snorted at Kuroo's instant and indignant response. “No thanks. My punch was, in fact, aimed at his balls so he got what he deserved. But it turns out there's a kind of person who thinks all gay guys are just in it because they're desperate for sex, so. No second date for him.”  
Kuroo heaved his own sigh and frowned. “Look, I hate to be that guy, because no one actually likes that guy, but... I mean, did you lead him on at all? Desperate guys can misinterpret signals pretty easily. Especially if alcohol is involved.” He balked at Tsukishima's glare. “Look, I'm not accusing you of making yourself available to attack. I just know that men who are drunk and desperate tend to assume that all interaction in an indication of sexual interest. I run a night club, remember? I see it all the time. There's a reason I have the rules I do.”  
“Funnily enough, no. I didn't. We never even had actual physical contact during the date. We had gone out to get dinner, and he was very polite and walked me back to my apartment. I let him in to use the bathroom and the next thing I know, he had me on the floor with his hand down my pants and his tongue down my throat.” Tsukishima winced as Kuroo's features settled into a hard and steady glare.  
“So you punched him in the dick and came here?”  
“No. I punched him in the dick, kicked him in the knee, and threw him out my front door. When he finally left, I came here.”  
“You're staying here tonight.” Kuroo was just as surprised as Tsukishima at his declaration.  
“What? No way, I-”  
“The guy is a total asshole, he knows where you live, and you hit him where it hurts. Literally. I guarantee he'll be by tomorrow, if not later tonight.”  
“I'm not scared of him.”  
“He managed to get you half undressed in a couple of seconds by the sound of it.”  
“I was caught off guard, Kuroo. Chill out, I can handle it if he shows up.”  
Kuroo was raising his voice, and he couldn't tell if it was the alcohol talking or something else. “You're drunk and you're obviously tired and upset, and I am not letting you wander home alone in that state, let alone wander into a potential rapist like that!”  
“Why are you treating me like a kid?”  
“Because I'm worried about you!”  
“You know I AM an adult, right? I don't need you to worry about me!” Tsukishima was almost yelling too, and they were both getting a little red in the face.  
“Well your stubborn attitude certainly doesn't invite confidence, you know? I'd feel better if I didn't think you might be in danger from some angry stranger who, despite your guard or not, managed to knock you down and start molesting you before you could react! You don't even know the guy!”  
“What, and you think you're safer? We're both so damn drunk that-”  
Now Kuroo really was shouting, his face creased in disappointment and anger. “I would never touch you without permission, no matter how god damn drunk I was! Do you really think so little of me that I would do anything that would hurt you?!”  
Tsukishima stopped still, his mouth hanging open for a brief second before it snapped closed with an audible click of teeth. “No, that's not what I-”  
“You're damn right it's not! Now shut the hell up and accept the fact that you're sleeping here tonight!”  
Tsukishima turned away, reaching for another can of beer. Kuroo snatched it out of his hand before he could open it.  
“And enough of that! You're plenty drunk enough already. I'm getting you water!” Kuroo stood abruptly, managing to keep his feet despite the cooling rage and churning alcohol in his system, stomping to the kitchen to put the beer in the fridge and retrieve two bottles of water. He slammed one down in front of Tsukishima and cracked his own open, chugging half of it in one go. They were silent for several minutes, the only sound being the TV and their own drinking.  
Finally, Tsukishima said, “I'm sorry.”  
“Damn right you should be. I'm actually angry at you.”  
“I'm sorry, Kuroo.”  
Kuroo sighed. “I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have started yelling, but god damn it Tsukishima, Sometimes I'm speaking from a place of experience.”  
“What, this happened to you?” Tsukishima looked over in surprise.  
“No, not me. A friend of mine. I let her go home after she cried to me about it and the guy showed up the next day, saying he wanted to apologize. Luckily she didn't let him in, but he kicked her door a few times, hard enough to leave a dent in the wood. Her landlord called the police and the guy left, but it scared her. She moved a couple of weeks later.”  
“I'm sorry.”  
“Yeah, me too. Look, forget about it. Please just stay here tonight. I'll feel better about it if you do.”  
“Okay.”  
Kuroo stared over at Tsukishima, whose head was hung low over his bottle. “Wait, seriously? You won't fight me over it?”  
“No.”  
“I don't have a spare futon, you know.”  
“I'll sleep on the floor with a blanket, if you have one.”  
“What? No.” Kuroo stood up, draining the last of his water and taking Tsukki's empty bottle as well. “I mean, I have spare blankets, but my bed is big enough for two people. As long as that doesn't weird you out, we can share. I'm a big sleeper, though.”  
As if on cue, Tsukishima yawned widely. “Okay.”  
Kuroo stared at him through narrowed eyes. “You're awfully pliable awfully suddenly.”  
“I'm just tired now. I don't feel like arguing,” Tsukishima retorted, covering another yawn.  
Kuroo snorted as he set aside the recyclables on the counter and checked the locks on his front door. “Shit, is that all it takes? Five beers and a shouting match? I'll take it. Bedroom's this way.” He led the way into the bedroom, which was, unfortunately, littered with his belongings. He hadn't gotten around to installing shelves yet, so although his clothes were put away in the closet, everything else was stacked on the desk, the filing cabinet, or the floor.  
“You live in a sty.”  
“I wasn't expecting company.”  
“With any luck I won't be awake enough to remember details.” Tsukishima sat on the edge of the bed where it sat beneath the bedroom window. He spluttered as Kuroo chucked a pair of pajamas at him, glaring tiredly but unable to muster the energy to say something snappy.  
“The bathroom is the other door off the living room. Go get changed and ready for bed. Do you mind if I turn off the air and open the windows? I sleep better with a breeze.”  
“Sure.”  
Kuroo changed as well, and took a moment to check and make sure his sheets were passably clean. Sure he'd just changed them this morning, but still. The small glass chime hung with the curtains tinkled gently as he opened the window and let the cool night air wash into the room. Tsukishima appeared in the doorway, Kuroo's pajamas slightly too big for him and hanging baggy around his shoulders and feet. “Grab the light on your way over?” Kuroo asked from the bed. Tsukishima put his clothes on top of a stack of folders near the door and tugged the chain as he made his way across the room.  
There was a faint glow from a streetlight outside that was just enough to illuminate his path and Tsukishima flopped tiredly into bed next to Kuroo, who was tossing pillows across both sides to make things more comfortable. “This is a lot of pillows.” There were, at Tsukki's best count, at least six.  
“I like a lot of pillows when I sleep. If I could just sleep on a nest of pillows, I would. Comfy?”  
“Mm.”  
“Good night, Tsukishima.”  
“You're mean, Kuroo.”  
Kuroo blinked at the sleepy statement. “I listened to you whine about your failed date and gave you a place to sleep for the night and I'm mean?”  
“How do you just turn off like that?” Tsukishima rolled over to face him, but he was still curled up a bit with his face buried in the pillow. “You were so mad at me and now you're not.”  
“Yeah, well, you said you were sorry and I believe you. So I'm not mad any more. Go to sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Ganbatte ne, Kuro = Do your best, Kuro


	5. Chapter 5

Kuroo woke to the sun beaming in through his window and splashing across his face. He had blackout curtains for the bedroom's eastward-facing window to prevent this exact thing from happening, but he had yet to put them up. Or even actually take them out of the package. He groaned and rolled over. Two nights in a row of heavier than usual drinking could really take a toll on you as you got old. Not that twenty five was especially old, Kuroo thought as he staunchly refused to open his eyes to the bright daytime onslaught. He still needed, like, twelve more days of sleep. At least.  
When something next to him shifted and sighed quietly, Kuroo froze. If he didn't move, didn't breathe, maybe Tsukki wouldn't wake, wouldn't see him. Wouldn't realize they'd had another terrible and awkard night that had actually ended up with them sharing his bed.  
Well, Kuroo thought with a grin, at least he could honestly tell Kenma now that he'd slept with Tsukishima. That might be good for a laugh and it would certainly make Hinata's brain do a hard restart, which was always really entertaining to watch. 

He drifted back off to sleep again at some point, waking up only when something began prodding irritably at his back.  
“Kuroo.”  
The sun had passed just beyond the bounds of the window, so the light coming in was less direct but no less bright than the first time he'd woken up. He could see it through his eyelids.  
“Kuroo, move, you're crushing me.”  
The voice was grumbling and sounded about as happy to be awake as he was, but Kuroo was having a hard time caring. The sun was warm and he was comfortable, sprawled in a loose ball across the center of his bed.  
“I'm going to smack you in a minute, roll the hell over.”  
“'S my bed,” Kuroo mumbled, too blissful to care much what was going on around him.  
“I'll start counting your gray hairs, I can see them from here. One, two, thre-”  
“Don't have any, nice try.” Kuroo could feel himself waking up, stirring from the gentle nothingness that came in that space between sleeping and waking. There was silence for a few seconds as something bony shifted against his back and tried in vain to force Kuroo's solidly built form to move over.  
“Man, I guess this is why you don't have a girlfriend. You just can't share the bed, can you?”  
“Says the one spooning me.” He heard Tsukishima splutter and worked very hard to suppress a smirk.  
“Well, I guess I'll just get up and head home then.” Tsukishima stirred, but Kuroo could tell he wasn't really getting up. He snickered, still not opening his eyes.  
“You could if you want, but my bed is soft and the sun is warm and you don't have class for at least another four hours.”  
“I fail to see your point.”  
Kuroo shifted, heaved himself to the side, and cracked open one eye to stare up at Tsukishima where he had propped himself up on his elbows. Bed head suited the blonde, being somewhat akin to his usual messy style, and the slight squint he acquired when he wasn't wearing his glasses made him look like he was trying out a seductive stare. “You could just stay here for a while.”  
“Or I could go home and take a shower and eat breakfast-”  
“Or you could just stay here for a while.”  
If asked at that moment what he thought he was doing, Kuroo would have answered that he didn't. He had no idea what he thought he was doing, he had no idea what Tsukishima was thinking, hell, he didn't even know what he himself was thinking. He was reasonably sure he'd stopped thinking. But he reached out a lazy hand and tugged on Tsukishima's arm until the man flopped down next to him with a huff. He considered putting his arm out again, but he didn't know what he was reaching for and wasn't sure Tsukishima wanted to be reached. “See? Not so bad.”  
“You're shameless.”  
“Mm.”  
“And a terrible flirt.”  
“Guilty.”  
“And... nice.”  
“Why thank you.” Kuroo had let his eyes drift closed again, not wanting to ruin the building moment by staring at Tsukishima and scaring away the sudden mood.  
“And thank you.”  
“For what?”  
“Last night.”  
“What about it?”  
Tsukishima turned his head to stare at Kuroo, who wasn't hiding his grin very well and knew it. “Thank you for letting me get you drunk and then letting me stay here.”  
“You're welcome.”  
“And thank you for not being an asshole.”  
“No problem.”  
Something rustled near his head and Kuroo looked up, just in time to smack his forehead into Tsukishima's chin where he had been about to... well, about to do something, but foreheads and chins weren't meant to collide and both men winced, bringing hands up to cradle the sore spots.  
“What the hell?” Tsukishima grumbled around his hand, running his tongue around his mouth to make sure he hadn't bit his lip accidentally. “What was that?”  
Kuroo rubbed his forehead, making any potential red spot infinitely worse in the process. “I was afraid you were buttering me up so you could attack me in secret as payback or something for yelling at you last night!”  
“You're insane!”  
“You're the one who was, like, trying to bite my head or something. Oh! Oh, were you going for my big, juicy brain?”  
“What?”  
“That's it! Are you a zombie now, Tsukki?!”  
“You watch too many movies-”  
“Says the zombie! I'm on to you, I know your secret now-”  
“I was trying to kiss you, you ass!”  
They fell silent and stared at each other, Tsukishima once again up on his elbows and Kuroo half underneath a pillow that he had clutched to his head as protection against Tsukishima's new cerebral cravings.  
“What?” Kuroo blinked in confusion.  
Tsukishima managed to sigh with his whole body while still retaining all of his nervous tension. “I was just... I was going to kiss your head.”  
Kuroo blinked a few more times for good measure. “Really?”  
His efforts were rewarded by the sight of Tsukishima turning slightly pink as he looked away, squinting at the far wall and stoically refusing to respond.  
“You know, if you want to kiss me, you can.” Kuroo tried to roll his eyes away in some expression of innocence, but he was fixated on Tsukki's hand, braced on the bed so close to his own. He wanted to reach out and touch it, brush their fingers lightly together and see if, despite evidence to the contrary, Tsukishima still had his old volleyball calluses. He could see that the younger man still kept his nails cut short almost to the quick, but whether that was a volleyball habit or not was still unknown.  
He was just reaching out when Tsukki's hand lifted from the sheets and landed rather roughly on his head. “If I wanted to kiss you, I would,” Tsukishima said, sitting up fully and heaving his legs over the side of the bed.  
Kuroo resisted hiding under the sheets and wallowing in a pool of self-pity. That had stung. Instead, he retorted with, “Well you certainly seemed to want to the other night.”  
“We were both very drunk the other night.” Tsukishima was changing his shirt, and Kuroo was trying not to stare. He'd managed to stay in pretty good shape over the years, living in the city did that to you. But despite all the walking, healthy eating, running, and infrequent volleyball games Bokuto scheduled, Kuroo had still managed to lose his high school figure. He was still quite fit, don't get him wrong. Kuroo was healthy and maintained an athletic form, but with age came a general tendency towards stomach fat that he worked hard to avoid. Tsukishima, on the other hand, seemed to have filled out rather attractively. His lean growing form had packed on muscle and his abs were just this side of ridiculous.  
It was giving Kuroo a kind of inconvenient problem.  
“Well, ouch. I guess I'm just a drunken mistake, then.”  
Tsukishima turned to stare, quickly exchanging the pajama pants for his khaki shorts. “I don't know. Are you?”  
Kuroo gave up trying not to and just stared in blank astonishment for a minute until he finally burst into action. Tsukishima was fully dressed and on his way out the bedroom door as Kuroo was struggling with the sheets and trying to get up. He'd shed his shirt in his sleep at some point during the night, and now that was tangled around him as well. It was like everything was conspiring to keep him stuck where he was.  
“Thanks for letting me stay. I'll see you at work tonight.”  
And then Tsukishima was out the door. It was a bit rude, honestly, but as Kuroo stumbled into the living room he noticed that things had been straightened and, somehow without Kuroo even noticing, Tsukishima had collected his trash and taken it out with him. What the hell kind of person was this guy? Kuroo hardly knew.  
He flopped back on to the bed, rolling over to grab his phone off his night stand and stared at it. It was nearly noon, and Kenma had sent him a curious-face emoji, followed immedately by a puking one and a question mark about an hour ago. Kuroo sighed so heavily he felt the breeze outside stir with his exhale. He responded in kind, sending a pair of glasses and a volleyball separated from a sad face by a broken heart and a question mark. It was, he felt, a fairly accurate depiction of his circumstances.

_Did you guys talk?_

_We slept together._

_Right. So you shared the bed but nothing happened._

_Whaaaaaaat how did you know. You're too good at this._

_Because if you guys had had sex, you would have panicked and_  
_sent me a message about it._

_Did you talk?_

_Yeah, but not about anything good._

_Well since yesterday he was a face and today he's a volleyball_  
_wearing glasses, I guess it went badly._

_Have you eaten yet?_

_I just woke up._

_Good. Meet me here in an hour, I'll make us lunch._

An hour and twenty minutes later, Kuroo opened the door to Kenma's knock. “You're late.”  
“You know I had plans with Shoyou today. I had to call him and cancel them.”  
Kuroo shrugged, standing aside to let his friend in and closing the door behind him. “You guys have plans almost every day.”  
“He was really mad. I promised to take him to Tokyo Tower.”  
The two of them moved into the living room, where Kuroo set out bowls of salad and two plates of leftover fried cod from the night before. It was a nice, light, refreshing lunch for the hot summer day. “Eh? The Skytree? Haven't you taken him there twice already?”  
“Yes, but he really likes it. And his sense of direction is terrible, so he'll get lost if he goes by himself. Thanks for the food.” Kenma clasped his hands together briefly over the food before digging in. He didn't really cook for himself, and if he was honest, that was half the reason Kuroo had learned how to cook so well. They had lived together for a year when Kenma graduated high school, and Kuroo had worked very hard to put some meat on the bones of his friend.  
It had mostly worked. Kenma at least looked like a healthy human now and not a skeleton wearing skin. Now, it was mostly convenience store food or Hinata would make the hour-long train trip and cook. It had been mildly surprising to find out that the Shrimp could cook, but when Kuroo discovered that he had a younger sister, it made more sense. Hinata couldn't do anything fancy or complicated, but he could make tasty, basic meals. At least Kuroo didn't have to worry about Kenma getting scurvy or starving to death without him around to take care of him.  
“So?”  
Kuroo nearly choked when Kenma's piercing gaze was set on him. “Sooo...?”  
“You wanted me to come over. What do you want to talk about?”  
So he talked. Like a dam being lowered after a particularly heavy rainfall, Kuroo spilled in a steady, constant stream as Kenma sat and listened quietly. He talked about how he was pretty sure the recent uptick in the Cattail's success was due in major part to Tsukishima's excellent DJ skills, about how he was doing quite well in his classes this semester and his last final tomorrow was basically in the bag. He told the full story of what had happened the night before last, at Tsukishima's apartment.  
Kuroo talked at length about the friendships he'd been gradually building with his employees, about how funny Kaoru's disappointment had been when Tsukki told them all he was gay. He talked briefly about a clinic not far from school that one of his teachers had offered to give him a recommendation for. There was enough money coming in to the club that he was able to set some aside each month towards some kind of interior renovation. He told a story about Bokuto meeting him for lunch one day not too long ago and then falling face-first into a puddle because he had gotten too excited about something and tripped. He talked about how Tsukki was getting better at handling Bokuto when he came to visit the Cattail.  
He apologized, by the way, for disrupting Kenma's plans with Hinata and he hoped that the Shrimp wouldn't be too upset with Kenma for blowing him off. Kuroo cleared up their empty dishes and washed them as he talked about Tsukishima's turtles. He laughed about Ume and Ichirou, didn't those two realize they'd make a great couple? His mom was doing well, she had dug up part of their yard to plant a vegetable patch and he planned to go home for a few days for Obon next month, should he just close the club for that week? He wondered if Tsukki was going home, he didn't seem like the type.

Kuroo talked for over an hour, stopping only when he realized he had quite literally run out of things to tell Kenma. They sat sipping cold barley tea as he wound down into silence. For several minutes, Kuroo tried to remember all that he had mentioned, but there had been so much that he wasn't really sure. He stared down at his tea and sighed.  
“You're a mess.”  
“Geh!” Kuroo winced. “Is that all you have to say after all that?”  
Kenma set his cup down and turned a blank, analytical stare on his friend. “No, but I thought I should start there.”  
“For someone so apathetic you can be really cruel. So? Go on, give it to me straight. I can take it.” Kuroo leaned back on his hands, turning his head to stare up at the blank white ceiling.  
“You're like... you have a slow trigger finger.”  
Kuroo blinked. “What?”  
“Like in games. You take too long to aim. Kuro always waits for the perfect shot but by the time you've got it, your target's moved and you either miss entirely or only get a partial hit.” Kenma tapped his fist into his other hand, as if his statement made perfect sense. “You're too worried about other things. You need to act faster. See the shot, take it.”  
“I'm not sure what you're talking about.”  
Kenma sighed. He needed a different analogy, maybe his Shoyou method would work. “Like volleyball. When I toss for you, the ball is your target. But it's moving past you, so you have to line up your spike and hit it as soon as you've got it set up.”  
Kuroo was impressed by the amount of talking Kenma was trying to do.  
“But if you wait too long, even just a little, you miss the shot and your spike goes off course.”  
“Oh.”  
“Tsukishima-kun is a moving target and I think I know why, but you're taking too long. By the time you finally see it, you've missed it.” Kenma mimicked a spike, his arm coming up and swinging in a motion that Kuroo had burned into his muscles long ago.  
“I... I guess?”  
Kenma sighed. “You'll figure it out.”  
“No, no, I get what you're saying. I just don't know what to do about it.” Kuroo shrugged. “You're the brain, remember?” He knew Kenma hated when he brought that up. He'd been embarrassed when Kuroo had made the little pep-talk to begin with, but the name had stuck. No one actually called Kenma 'Brain' to his face, but he was, irrevocably, even after Kuroo left, the Brain of Nekoma High's volleyball team.  
“Don't say things like that. You're smart. You're just also an idiot.”  
“Those two statements are mutually exclusive.”  
“Not necessarily. Anyway, one thing at a time. Tsukishima-kun keeps dodging your advances. So he isn't interested?”  
Kuroo leaned forward until his head rested on his arms on the table. “I don't think so? I mean, he can be really flirty.”  
“Hinata is really flirty too.”  
“The Shrimp isn't my type,” Kuroo retorted. “But they're not the same. I think I can tell when Tsukki is being himself and when he's flirting.”  
Kenma sighed again. He always seemed to sigh a lot when he was talking to Kuroo lately. “So why is this so hard for you?”  
Kuroo just shrugged.  
“Kuro, you have to change your method.”  
“Yeah, but what am I supposed to do?”  
It was Kenma's turn to shrug. “What do you want to do? You haven't actually told me what your intentions towards Tsukishima-kun are. You haven't even said if you like him or not.”  
Kuroo froze. Hadn't he? He did, right? Did what? Like Tsukishima, or state his intentions? He couldn't remember. He didn't know. What _were_ his intentions? What, exactly, did he want from Tsukishima?  
“I... I want... to go out with him?”  
Kenma's stare didn't physically change, but Kuroo could feel the force of it strengthen. “Don't you know?”  
“I just... God, Kenma, sometimes he makes this face and I feel like he was getting ready to make love to someone. And then sometimes when he laughs, his face just goes all fuwaaaaa and it's like he's a happy little kid. He's smart and funny and really, really hot and he knows just how to needle me.”  
“Kuro it so-”  
“I don't know how to handle him. He comes and goes in this weird orbit, but I think I want him around. I just don't know how to manage that.”  
“So, do you li-”  
“Shit, Kenma, I think I'm in love.”  
“Hah?” Kenma nearly spat out his tea. With difficulty, he swallowed the mouthful he had taken and ran the back of a hand across his mouth. Kuro had never talked this way before. Sure, he'd had a few girlfriends in high school and a smattering of boyfriends and girlfriends since he'd entered college, but he had always just viewed them as a kind of a fling. Kenma hadn't ever seen Kuro get so worked up about someone that wasn't actually Kenma. Well, hell. Kuro had helped Kenma walk through his own relationship crisis, Kenma surely wasn't going to back down and leave his friend to fend for himself. But they were sailing unknown waters, here. Kenma couldn't sort out his own feelings for Shoyou at first and had ended up in a flaming row with the boy until Kuro stepped in and gave him a few things to think about.  
“W-well, if that's the case... tell... him?”  
“What?!” Kuroo turned an incredulous stare on his friend. “Are you kidding? He would roast me alive! I'd never recover from that burn.”  
“I don't really know what to say here.” Kenma shrugged helplessly. “But I'll support whatever decision you make?”  
Kuroo rolled around so he could flop emotionally to the floor, covering his eyes with one arm for effect. Sometimes you really just needed to be overly dramatic. “I'm going to die. Kenma I'm going to say something dumb and he's going to kill me.”  
“Well, your idea of flirting can be kind of dumb, so if he hasn't killed you yet...”

Kenma left a few hours later and Kuroo still wasn't feeling great about his situation. But he had a final tomorrow and he really did have to review for it at some point. Not like that was going to happen, though, Kuroo thought as he lounged on the floor next to the open sliding door to the balcony where he had hung some laundry out to dry in the afternoon sun.  
Yeah, talking everything over with Kenma had been edifying and all, but it also felt to Kuroo like things were as hopeless as ever. It wasn't exactly that he felt like Tsukishima was out of his league, but it was more like they were playing two different sports. Which was a confusing metaphor because they had actually played the same sport--  
Kuroo was going nowhere fast. He sighed, staring out through the door at the ominous clouds in the sky. He could message Tsukishima, try to establish regular communication again and go from there. But that would seem too forced after their handful of awkward encounters. If he pretended nothing had happened, they could maybe go back to the friendly working relationship they'd built up over the last few months. But things were tense now, and Kuroo wasn't sure he could suppress those feelings easily. No, neither of those options appealed to him. Kuroo wasn't used to being this unsure of himself in anything. He was usually the type to just be straightforward with everything, so why was he dancing around the issue with Tsukishima now? What did he actually want with the poor guy?  
Well, sex. Sex with Tsukishima sounded _fantastic_ and Kuroo spent several dazed minutes imagining what that might be like. But... it wasn't just that. He wanted to sit on the floor and argue about stupid TV quiz shows together, and listen to Tsukishima go starry-eyed about turtles. He wanted to play volleyball together; that was something he'd have to recruit Bokuto's help with. Kuroo wanted to know what kind of shampoo Tsukishima used, because it smelled really good.  
Shit, he really was in love, wasn't he?  
Kuroo sat up suddenly. No. No, this was getting ridiculous. He gathered in his still damp laundry, grabbed his bag from its place by the door, slipped on his sneakers, and locked the front door behind him. He got to the bus stop with five minutes to spare, and he toyed with his cell phone anxiously as he waited. The trip by bus took nearly twenty minutes in the afternoon traffic, but Kuroo got off at his destination and looked around. Let's see...  
Another ten minutes and Kuroo stood in front of Tsukishima's apartment door with a sudden case of nerves. He wasn't actually sure Tsukki was home, but chances were good that he was. His class should have been over nearly an hour ago and it was getting close to dinner time. Not giving himself a chance to chicken out, Kuroo took a deep breath, put on the most casual face he could manage, and rang the bell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing cliffs for you guys to hang off of. I regret nothing.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOSH GUYS I AM FINALLY WRITING AGAIN HOLY CRAP ITS BEEN ALMOST A YEAR PLEASE FORGIVE ME, I THROW MYSELF ON YOUR MERCY.

Kuroo stood in the hallway, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet. After a minute, he heard the chain on the door unlatch and Tsukishima stood blinking in his doorway. “What?”  
“Can I come in? I need to talk to you.”  
Tsukishima stepped back, letting Kuroo close the door as he retreated back into his apartment. Kuroo noted that he'd straightened up; the clutter from the other night must have just been the pre-finals study mess that many serious students fell victim to when living on their own.  
“So?” Tsukishima stood, hands in his pockets. “What's up? Didn't we just see each other, like, six hours ago? You'll see me at work tonight.”  
“I gave everyone the night off, half of us are still studying. We'll keep the Cattail closed tonight. Tomorrow is the last day of finals and business was dead anyway.”  
Tsukishima glanced at his phone, sitting on his desk undisturbed. “Did you call or something? I don't think I got a message.”  
“Yeah, well, something came up I wanted to ask you about, so I came by in person.” Kuroo made a mental note to send the message out ASAP or else he'd have a rioting band of employees at his front door later.  
“And?” The blonde man blinked in pure disinterest. It was a discouraging start.  
Kuroo's put his hands in his pockets in self-defense. He didn't want Tsukishima to see how hard he was clenching his fists. “I was thinking-”  
“A first.”  
“ - that we should go out.”  
“We went out the other night. You got drunk and threw up in my toilet, remember? A great time was had by all.”  
“I think we should go out, just the two of us. And maybe not end the night drunk.”  
“But where's the fun in that?”  
“And I think we should kiss.”  
“Why do yo-”  
“I also think I want to date you.”  
Kuroo was staring, and his focus was like a laser directed at Tsukki. The other man wasn't actively trying to avoid his eyes, but Kuroo could tell that he didn't like the confrontation. “I want to see what you're like when you're not around other people. I really want to see your unguarded moments. I want to seduce you. God I want to seduce you. But... I want you to want those things too.”  
“And if I don't?” Tsukishima's face was faintly pink, but his eyes were sharp. There was no trace of his usual sarcastic grin.  
“Then... well, shit that would suck. But I'm reasonably confident you... might...?”  
“You don't sound it.”  
“Well, without some kind of input from you, I genuinely can't tell.”  
Rain began to patter gently against Tsukishima's windows, and Kuroo was glad he'd brought the bag with his umbrella in it. There was silence for a minute until finally, Kuroo let his shoulders sag with a sigh. “Oh well. It was worth a shot. Look, thanks for listening. Sorry I bugged you.”  
He turned to go but was stopped by a sudden bang. Tsukishima had slammed his fist down on the desk, making his phone jump from the edge and teeter precariously. Kuroo looked from Tsukishima's fist to his furious face and winced. He'd been pretty sure that Tsukishima wouldn't like him coming over to confess—if that counted as a confession, that is—but this reaction was worse than he'd been expecting.  
“You can't tell? You can't tell? How the hell do you think I feel?”  
“Um... what?” Real smooth, Kuroo chastised himself.  
Tsukishima was glaring, but it didn't feel angry. It was more like an intense focus, like someone had pointed a light through a lense at him. “You spend months, months acting like my friend and building some kind of thing with me. You actually talked me into going to the aquarium with you because they had gotten in that new snapping turtle. You go out of your way to make sure you save the chocolate chip muffin when you do a coffee run because I told you once – once – that they were my favorite! You flirt with me, but you flirt with everyone! Including the little old woman who owns the liquor store down the road from you.”  
Kuroo nodded slowly. Yes, yes those were all things he did. He was pretty sure of that.  
“But you leave me dangling there because you never actually do anything! You treat me just the same as everyone else and expect me to know that you think I'm special or something? Don't make me laugh.”  
“I... huh?”  
“Then you tell me that you don't know where I stand? Isn't that a bit selfish of you, Kuroo?”  
The older man was struck dumb in the face of Tsukishima's fury. This was not the direction he'd pictured this conversation going.  
“I hate guys like you. You're so sure you know what other people are thinking, or how they feel, and then you don't stop to think that your own ego might be overestimating the situation.”  
Kuroo was speechless, actually genuinely speechless. He couldn't come up with a single thing to say. Tsukishima's face was red but he looked more composed, and Kuroo knew he had to say something, anything, couldn't let him wind the silence up or else he would lose his footing. But he was left empty, devoid of any argument. He simply gaped for several long eternities, trying to assess the damage caused by the land mine he had just stepped on.  
“Listen. I have a friend stopping by soon, so you should probably go.” Tsukishima was brushing past, headed to the front door with a pointed look.  
“Y-yeah. Yeah, I guess I- yeah. I'll... I'll see you at work tomorrow. Enjoy your night off.”

The walk home was simultaneously the longest and shortest walk of his life. Kuroo couldn't remember how long it took for him to get home, but it seemed like only a few minutes before he was arriving at his door, soaked up to the knees from the pounding rain. He avoided drinking a third night in a row, but just barely. Kuroo soaked in the bath for nearly two hours, after which he ignored his growling stomach and just went to bed.  
He hadn't expected much, honestly. But Kuroo had been getting the feeling that Tsukishima was at least a little more than passing interested in maybe some kind of arrangement between them. Though now that he thought about it, Kuroo wasn't really sure he'd be okay with them being just fuck buddies. But maybe he just wasn't able to manage a love life right now. This certainly seemed to be a sign, and it was an awful one. Even sullen, anti-social Kenma was holding down a stable relationship. Bokuto and Akaashi were both in long-term relationships. Oikawa was engaged, which was amazing and had left his fans devastated at the news. Most of the old gang had quiet money on when Sugawara and Sawamura would give up the single-bachelors-living-together-for-convenience pretense and just officially become a couple. Kuroo had five hundred yen safely on them not saying anything until after Iwaizumi's first child was born, which was still seven months away.  
He paused briefly to wonder how Karasuno's team had ended up with so many gay men on it. They really skewed the statistics.  
But his point still held. All of Kuroo's friends were finishing school and getting jobs and settling down like adults. Meanwhile, he was still running to make it to the Cattail on time after class, falling asleep over his homework, he hadn't played a serious game of volleyball in years, and his mom was pressuring him about getting a good job and finding a good woman and having lots of good children. He felt like he was falling behind. It wasn't a feeling Kuroo was used to.  
With a sigh, he got up and began sorting through a messy pile of papers on his desk. The phone call lasted just over half an hour. Irrevocably awake and fretting about his future, Kuroo shuffled into his kitchen to find something to eat. 

The following evening found Kuroo escorting a young woman only a few years older than him into the Cattail much to the interest of everyone else there. “Oi, guys, come here for a sec. Wait, where's Shouta?”  
“Missed his bus, he's running late. Should be here soon,” Kaoru replied, checking her phone as she walked over with the others. “What's up, Boss?”  
Kuroo almost convinced himself he wasn't paying attention, but he noticed Tsukishima staying a nearly fixed distance from him. “I want you guys to meet your new boss. This is Kanegawa Hibiki, she's taking over management for me.”  
There was a stab of silence from his crew as Hibiki, a cheerful and round-faced woman with a trendy bob of black hair bowed with a smile. Then the noise came flooding back all at once as they all seemed to ask questions simultaneously. Even Hibiki balked in the face of such aggressive curiosity.  
“Oi oi oi! Shut up for a second!” Kuroo clapped his hands over his head to be heard over the noise. Once things had settled down, he continued. “I can't keep up with you guys any more. I'm just a college student, you know? It's a miracle I've kept this place going as long as I have and it's mostly because I lucked out and hired the best damn employees anyone could ask for. So my options were to close the place so I could focus on school or hire someone to be a real manager for you. And so, I give you Kanegawa Hibiki. Stop scaring her. Ume, I can feel your glare.”  
Ume's lips pursed in something of a displeased frown. “I understand why you did this, Kuroo-san, but I wish you'd said something to us about it.”  
“Yeah, the Cattail's our baby too!” Miko, who had been his first waitress, pouted. “I mean, we wouldn't have stopped you, but you shouldn't sit and dwell on this stuff all by yourself.”  
“So did you sell?” Ichirou crossed his arms, but it was thoughtful, not aggressive.  
“What?” The question genuinely caught Kuroo off guard. “What? Hell no! I love this place! I just can't keep up with running it, going to school full time, and being the manager too. Hibiki has a lot of experience and she's sarcastic enough to keep up with you lot. I'll still be around, and I still own the business. I just won't be here all the time.”  
At that moment, Shouta jogged in through the front door, a sheen of sweat on his face as he came to a stop and sighed. He got to relive all the excitement as everyone tried to tell him the news at once, which left Shouta almost as frightened as Hibiki had been. Kuroo heaved a sigh and left them to go at it as he made his way into the office. It took several minutes, but eventually, the knock he had been expecting came. “Come in,” he called. He wasn't sure who would come first, but he knew everyone would trickle in throughout the night to put in their two cents.  
He certainly wasn't expecting Tsukishima to be the first, the left side of his face the ugly reddish-purple of a new bruise. “Planning your exit strategy already?”  
“Holy shit man, what the hell happened to you?” It was an actual physical struggle not to leap out of his chair to look at the swelling that wrapped up around Tsukishima's eye and all the way down his cheek. As it was, Kuroo stood and braced his hands on the desk.  
“A friend and I... got into an argument.” Tsukki brushed his fingers along the worst of the bruise, wincing just barely at his own touch.  
“If that's from an argument, I'd hate to see the aftermath of an actual fight. Jeeze, did you get that looked at? Have you taken anything for the swelling? You're going to have a hell of a shiner.”  
“I'm fine. I put ice on it.”  
Kuroo resisted slapping his hands on the desk and instead reached down to fling open one of the drawers. “Come here. Now.”  
Tsukishima obeyed, which was a miracle. Kuroo turned on the desk lamp for better light and twisted it around until it was directed at Tsukishima's face. He began to riffle through the first aid kit he'd produced from the desk. “Glasses off. Chin up, let me look.”  
Tsukishima hissed as Kuroo prodded gently at the bruise. “God damn, Tsukki. Your friend has good aim. Does this hurt?”  
“Yes! Of course it does!”  
“Looks like the zygomatic's bruised, but I don't feel any movement and you aren't actively trying to murder me for the pain, so it probably isn't broken or fractured. You're lucky this wasn't a little further over, you could have broken your nose. There's no blood in your eye, has your vision changed at all?”  
“No.” Tsukishima turned his eyes away as Kuroo's face approached his with a look of serious concentration as he examined the bruise.  
“Headaches?”  
“Just the one you give me.”  
“How long did you ice it for?”  
Tsukishima frowned as Kuroo dug around in the first aid kit more, muttering about things not being put back where they belong. “About an hour.”  
“Here. Take these, and go ice your face some more.”  
Tsukishima swallowed the pills he was handed dry which made Kuroo want to gag, but he did as he was told.  
“How bad is your vision without your glasses?”  
Tsukishima shrugged. “I can't see three feet in front of me.”  
“Well shit. Okay, fine. Ice your face until we open. You can wear your glasses while you're at the table, but I'm taking over every once in a while so you can sit and get ice on that bruise again. You need to get that swelling down. No arguments. In six hours I will be hunting you down with more anti-inflammatories and you had best take them.”  
“Yes, mom,” Tsukishima muttered.  
“Eye injuries are serious, Tsukishima. You're lucky it wasn't a direct hit.”  
“Yeah, I know.”  
“Well you aren't acting like you know!” Kuroo frowned, clenching the hand on the first aid kit into a fist. “God damn it, you're an adult! You need to take care of yourself, you idiot!”  
“Like you're one to talk! When was the last time you got a full night of sleep? Don't lecture me on your own failings, asshole.”  
“At least I'm learning my lesson. Now go put ice on your face before I do it for you and I swear to God you will not like my methods.”  
Tsukishima stormed out of the office and Kuroo flopped into his chair with a sigh. Well he just couldn't keep his shit together, could he? Tally another stupid fight in the book. 

Kuroo kept his word. Every hour he tapped Tsukishima on the shoulder and gave him a look, whereupon Tsukishima would take off his headphones with a gimace and head off to put ice on his face. It seemed to be working, because Kuroo could see the swelling diminish throughout the night. Somewhere around midnight, while Tsukishima had the music going full-blast, Kuroo showed up and handed him a paper bag.  
“Eat these, take more medicine, and drink this bottle of water.”  
Tsukishima peered in at the three steaming meat buns and raised his eyebrow. Kuroo didn't miss the wince as the movement tugged at the bruise. “Seriously, what are you, my mom?”  
Kuroo's voice went high and motherly, which was totally at odds with his scowl. “Should I kiss it and make it feel better? Pain, pain, go away!” he trilled, very gently prodding the darkening bruise. “In case you don't remember, I'm in school to be a doctor, asshole.”  
Tsukishima mirrored his scowl as they both sat on the floor behind the DJ booth. “You need to stop being so nice to everyone.”  
“Yeah, about that? It's literally going to be my job to take care of people. I need to start cultivating an air of maturity and caring now, or else I'll be behind when I start clinicals.”  
“When is that?”  
“Next semester. There's a physical therapy practice about ten blocks from school that my teacher is giving me a recommendation for. I interview with them in two weeks.”  
“So you won't be here much.” It was more a statement than a question as Tsukki talked around a mouthful of meat bun.  
“I probably won't be here more than maybe a few hours on Saturday for a while. I'm going to be working there full time, which is why I hired Hibiki.”  
“She seems to be doing well. She came to check on me a while ago to see if I needed anything, and Kaoru and Shouta seem to like her.”  
Kuroo snorted. “If Kaoru likes her, all she has to do is win over Ume and she'll be golden.”  
Tsukki rolled his eyes, and that movement, too, seemed to twinge. Kuro smiled ruefully. It was amazing how much you didn't realize you used certain muscle groups until you injured them. “Ume's going to be resentful for a while, it might be hard at first.”  
“Heh? Why?” Kuroo fished in his pocket until he produced the bottle of aspirin. He shook out two and handed them over, grimacing when Tsukki again swallowed them dry.  
Tsukishima finished off his third meat bun and gulped half the bottle of water in one go. “Because she likes you.”  
“So does everyone else.”  
“No, idiot, she _likes you_. As in, wants to bang your brains out. Did you seriously not realize?”  
“Heh? Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehh?” Kuroo stared as Tsukishima finished the water and handed him back the trash.  
“Thanks for the snack.”

After shift, Kuroo gathered them all again with a sigh. “Okay, constructive criticism time. How did things go tonight? Ichirou?”  
“We were pretty busy, but everything went smoothly.” The bartender shrugged. “Hibiki isn't much good at mixing a drink, but she did grab stuff out of the back when we needed it, which helped a lot.”  
“Okay. Kaoru?” Kuroo started moving around the circle.  
Kaoru smiled, addressing her response directly to the worried-looking Hibiki. “You hovered a bit too much, but you were really helpful and covered where I couldn't. You knew all the drinks that were being ordered, and you handled the clientele very well.”  
The criticisms continued around the circle until finally Kuroo turned to Hibiki with his eyebrows raised expectantly. “Well? Your turn.”  
The sweet-faced young woman tilted her head thoughtfully for a moment. “Well... Ume, you bring a lot of people back for more drinks, but you flirt too much. It slows your work down. Shouta, you need to work on your task management a bit. You get flustered when too much is going on at once. And Makoto, you use your phone too much. You're here to work, not text your friends. Kei, you're good with music but bad with people. It wouldn't hurt to socialize with the floor a little.”  
Kuroo blinked. Kei? Who was-- Ohhhh. Tsukishima, of course. Hibiki was already referring to everyone by the first names, probably on Kuroo's example. The difference was that Tsukishima had always been Tsukishima, and Kuroo wasn't sure he'd feel comfortable using his first name. Would he? Maybe. He wanted to try, but it should probably wait until they were both feeling less edgy around each other.  
Kuroo nodded. “Good, it sounds like no one hates each other. Well, kids? Do you all think you can play nice together?”  
Everyone nodded amiably, and as they broke up to get their things, Kuroo pulled Hibiki aside. “Serious question now. You've had one night here, and if I'm being honest tonight was kind of a fluke. We're normally much busier but since finals just ended and it's summer, we're slower than usual. How are you feeling?”  
Hibiki shrugged. “I like your workers, your customers seem fairly average, and this place has a lot of potential. I won't get a really good opinion off of one night, but even if this place is really busy, I think I'll like it here.”  
“Great! Well then, we'll see you here tomorrow at the same time. Thank you for your hard work tonight.”  
“I hope we work well together,” Hibiki replied, bowing slightly and heading into the back to get her things. 

Kuroo looked around his employees as they all filtered out, calling good nights and reassuring Hibiki that things would only get worse from here. She took their ribbing with good humor, and as Kuroo grabbed his own satchel to leave, he was stopped by the sight of Tsukishima in conversation with someone he didn't recognize. She was short, undeniably cute, and as he locked up the front door, Kuroo tried to watch surreptitiously.  
“Are you gonna be able to come?” she asked, looking concernedly at the darkened bruise on his face.  
Tsukishima stuffed his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders a little. “Yeah. Day after tomorrow, right?”  
“We're all meeting at the station at eight.”  
“Okay.”  
She frowned again, and Kuroo was sure he could see her physically suppressing the urge to reach out and test the ugly mark just under Tsukishima's eye. “Let us know if you can't, okay? Everyone's looking forward to it, but no one wants you there if you're hurt. How is your eye, can you see?”  
“It's fine, I... had a doctor check it out.”  
Internally, Kuroo pumped his fist in victory.  
“Tadashi told me what happened, he feels really bad.”  
Tsukishima shrugged wordlessly. Taking this as his opportunity to interrupt, Kuroo jingled his keys loudly and stepped out of the shadow of the entrance. He was pretty sure he knew who the girl was. “Oh, hey Tsukki.” He didn't miss the surprised glance the girl shot at her tall friend. “And hello, Karasuno's Manager-chan. I didn't know you went to school in Tokyo too?”  
“O-oh! Kuroo-san. It's been a long time,” Yachi bowed nervously. “I'm actually up visiting, um, visiting a friend. I go to school in Miyagi.”  
“Come on, I'll walk you to the bus,” Tsukishima said quietly, shrugging his shoulders to resettle his bag. They set off together, and Kuroo waved after them with a cheerful grin.  
“Thanks for your hard work, Tsukki! See you tomorrow!” He heard her hiss something to Tsukishima, and he responded in a low murmur. 

All the way home, Kuroo wondered where Tsukishima was going. Whatever the reason, the girl whose name he couldn't recall had said “We're all” so it sounded like some kind of group trip. Well, it didn't seem like it would interrupt work, the day after tomorrow was a Monday and they'd be closed, so...  
Okay, so, he was really curious about what Tsukki and the cute young woman were going to go do together, and Kuroo had a hard time not indulging his nosiness. He resisted the urge to text Tsukishima and harrass him about it, but then he remembered the other man's enormous bruise and pulled out his phone as he wandered towards his usual cafe. 

_Ice your face when you get home. Take more medicine, eat a good meal._

_Sleep on your back, if you can, with your head a little raised._

__

_Seriously, are you trying to put my mother out of a job?_

Kuroo grinned at the quick response. 

_Well, if she can't take care of you and you won't take care of yourself..._

__

_I was taking care of it, Kuroo-san._

__

_But thank you for bothering me about it anyway._

_It is literally going to be my job, so. You're welcome._

__

_You should improve your bedside manner, though. You're hard to get along with._

_I have yet to receive complaints from anyone else._

__

_You have yet to start practicing medicine._

_I have plenty of practice, thanks to clumsy friends like you._

_I'm just not officially in business yet._

__

_Same difference._

 

Kuroo whistled has he pushed through the door to the cafe. “Yo, Kagami-san!” He waved as he approached the counter.  
“Kuroo-san. Was it a good night? You seem to be in high spirits.”  
“Well, it wasn't a bad night. And things seem to be looking up for me so that's always nice. Can I get my usual?”  
“Certainly.” Kagami set about the task of making Kuroo's coffee without apparently thinking about what he was doing. “How is the Cattail these days?”  
“Doing well. I actually just brought a new manager on board to watch the place for me. Maybe now I'll stop bothering you every other night and I can drop my caffeine dependency.” Kuroo chuckled as he took the mug and paid.  
“If you stop coming in, Kuroo, we'll lose half our revenue.”  
“Ouch. Is that a comment on my customer loyalty or my insane sleep habits?”  
Kagami chuckled as well. “Perhaps both.”

__

_Shoyou wants to know what you did to Tsukishima-san._

Kuroo stared at the text from Kenma as he sat down and began sipping his coffee. 

_Nothing...?_

__

_He said one of his other friends has been complaining about you and Tsukishima all day._

_Is this the friend that blackened Tsukki's eye, by any chance?_

_Because I have some words for him if it is._

__

_I don't know. Shoyou is bad at communicating and he doesn't have the whole story.  
Apparently he thinks you and Tsukishima-san should “just have sex already”_

_I'm not sure that's the best idea. I said we should date and now he's pretty mad at me._

__

_Mm._

_Somehow I expected more of a reaction._

__

_Well, you're bad at communicating too. It can't be helped._

_What does that mean?!_

__

_Ganbatte nee, Kuro._

Kuroo stared at the conversation in despair. Kenma obviously thought he had some kind of plain-sight answer to Kuroo's problems, but wasn't feeling kindly enough to just tell him what to do. It was frustrating, but reassuring. Kenma wouldn't let Kuroo go too wildly astray, so now it was down to Kuroo to figure out just what the heck he was going to do about Tsukishima. He had no idea. Kuroo had been told before that his open and friendly demeanor could backfire if he ever wanted to seriously hit the dating scene because it made him seem like too much of a playboy.  
That had surprised and only mildly offended Kuroo because, despite appearances, he was far from flirtatious when it came to romance. In fact, he tended to think that he was actually kind of shy and awkward around his crushes, and his focus on school and the Cattail meant not only had he really not had many relationships at all, but he could count his sexual encounters on one hand. Not that that was a bad thing! It just meant that he respected the kind of commitment that sex represented. At least, the kind of commitment it represented to him. Kuroo sighed as he jumped in to defend his own inexperience. 

_A little advice wouldn't go amiss._

Kenma's reply came quickly, which meant he'd probably been waiting for Kuroo to say something. 

__

_Decide what you want to do and then do whatever you need to to do that. You used to be much more goal-oriented, Kuroo._

_I guess so.  
Oh, hey. Why is Karasuno's Manager-chan in Tokyo? I saw her talking to Tsukki tonight. _

__

_They're having a reunion, I guess. Tokyo Disneyland or something, Shoyou is really excited._

_Really? Huh. Well, thanks. Night, bestie!_

>Don't call me that. 

Kuroo sent a smoochy-face emoji and drained the last of his coffee. Kagami was at his table seconds later, retrieving the mug with a friendly smile. Kuroo nodded goodnight to the man and headed for home. He was having a brain storm, and the little weather man in his head was predicting clear skies and sunshine in the near future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, at the risk of arousing all your hopes and dreams, I have actually completed the last two chapters of the story and I am proofing them currently. There MAY be an epilogue, but it isn't written yet and may not come for several months. I'm prepping for NaNoWriMo, have a young child to take care of (hence my total absence for, like, forever), and am also working full time. I PROMISE you all that this story will be done by Halloween.


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